Jury Impaneling
I went this morning to the Travis County 299th District Court for jury impaneling. Here's how this went. I arrived just before 8:00. At about 8:30, the bailiff, a very nice man named Art, came out, took our names, assigned us numbers, and went over a few things on how jury selection would work.
A few notes:
- We were asked, if we parked at a meter, not to leave the courtroom to go feed the meters. Instead, if we get a parking ticket, mail it to the court, and the court will pay it (or, more likely, cause it to be dismissed). Good to know, for future reference.
- Travis County pays jurors $10 to show up for impaneling (how generous of them ;-)) and $40 per day to serve. Adding insult to injury, we were given an opportunity to donate said funds back to Travis County.
- There are 67 potential jurors (for 12 spots, obviously).
- There isn't anywhere close to enough seating in the lobby area of the courtroom, so most of us were sitting on the floor, standing, or pacing. I had arrived early (naturally), and so was sitting. However, I offered my seat to a middle-aged woman once seats were full. However, the person sitting next to me (also female) observed this and shifted so all three of us could fit. About five minutes later, I did the same thing when another woman arrived...and the two sitting next to me just looked at me with this incredulous look on their faces, and one of them exclaimed, "Whoa...your mother raised you right!" I felt good right then. :)
So anyway, between 8:30 and 9:30, Art came out several times and calmly explained that there were some legal proceedings occurring, that he was sorry for making us wait.
Finally, at about 9:45, we were brought in to the courtroom. The judge was a kindly-looking man named Charlie Baird. Judging from the few minutes I was around him, he seems like a really nice guy. Oh, and black robes...still awesome. Anyway, he told us that the courtroom had suffered a power outage and the IT people were scrambling to get everything going...and could we please come back at 1:30? Government efficiency at its finest.
So much for getting any actual work done today.
Posted by Luke at 10:23 a.m.
So do you get an extra $10 for having to show up twice? ;-)
Posted by Elli on 2007.03.12 at 1:09 p.m.
The state mandates that counties pay jurors a minimum of $10 per day, except on the first day (impaneling), for which the minimum is six—except counties can opt to pay nothing the first day and use the money to increase subsequent days' pay. This is a fairly recent change; previously, the minimum was $6 per day. I know all this because Brazos County just upped jurors' pay from $10/day to $26/day; one of the officials [url=http://theeagle.com/]The Eagle[/url] interviewed about it said most counties pay only the minimum, and Brazos was trying to stay above average now that its old pay rate was the new minimum.
Posted by Alan on 2007.03.12 at 1:43 p.m.
I understand that it's our civic duty to serve on a jury when summoned, and I'm all for doing my civic duty. My problem is how little they're willing to pay. If one's salaried, that's one thing, since employers are obligated by law to excuse employees from work for jury duty. If one's contract (like me) and I have to miss a week of work for jury duty, that's a lot of money I can't afford to lose. If you get a jury summons, then they court should pay you your wages if your employer doesn't.
Or just walk into the impaneling and announce loudly, "Let's find him guilty already so we can get out of here." That way the defense attorney with immediately dismiss you and you can go home. :)
Posted by Chris on 2007.03.18 at 4:27 p.m.
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