Civic Duty

Last month I had received an invitation in the mail and thought, "Surely, it's a bit early for holiday party invites!" But this was to a party of another kind -- Jury Duty. Actually, it wasn't so much an invitation as a summons, and this one was from U.S. District (Federal) Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. They have a lovely facility here in downtown Scranton, which you can see HERE.

Now, I've heard people moan and groan about such an event, but I was excited. After all, I've never sat on a jury of any kind before and was curious to see what kinds of cases come through the District Courts. Call me an idealist, but I really believe that such assignments are an integral part of the judicial system, and consider them to be the duty of all citizens. Already, my attendance had been postponed the week before, so perhaps this too served to heighten the much-andticipated event.

Well, today was finally the day! I reported (excitedly) to the courthouse this morning and experienced some of the pre-trial preparations. I'll post more about the entire experience tomorrow, but suffice to say it was informative and not at all boring. The prospective jurors were there for less than an hour before the proceedings began, and the actual preliminaries lasted maybe another 45 minutes.