From the Be Careful What You Wish For Dept...

We left off our little tale of Dan's jury service at noon yesterday. Since then, I've waited and waited and waited... Nothing much, as yet, has happened.

We were shuffled into Dept. 68 at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse at 1:30 p.m., having enjoyed the court-standard 90 minute dining experience. Directly after being seated, the judge (whose last name is Mooney, though I can't remember for the life of me his first... maybe Michael?) informed us that this would be a long trial, between three and four weeks. Because of this (and, likely, because most employers pay for a max of 10 days of jury service), hizzoner asked if any of us poor souls needed to be excused for hardship reasons.

(Many of my fellow jurors thought this might be a long one, if only by the number of attorneys in the smallish courtroom. I counted 12: three for the plaintiffs, nine representing various companies presumably being sued by the plaintiffs.)

Interestingly, he heard the excuses, pleadings and reasonings in open court. As a former reporter, I kinda like that: if you are unable to fulfill your civic obligations, you have to tell the rest of us poor schmucks why. Due to the potential length of the trial, a little less than half of the assembled asked to be excused. This took quite a bit of time. Some people said they would fail to make their rent or loose their cars if forced to sit on a jury for a month. Others claimed poverty or unemployment, and, memorably, one large black man expressed a heart-felt fear of his diminutive landlady.

Though I wasn't keeping an exact count, it appeared Mooney excused all but one or two of the potential jurors (causing the guy next to me, who had not requested to be excused, to curse under his breath)... all but the attorney who claimed his firm would be damaged by the long trial. (My guess is that he will get knocked off for cause by one side or the other before this is through... or do something to cause himself to be kicked off.)

Anyhow, when this was completed, it was 3:30 p.m. Of course, this meant it was time to excuse the jury...with instructions to come back today at 11 a.m. This, apparently, is to go through the hardship/excuse process for a new group of suckers so we can start voir dire (finally) this morning or, more likely, this afternoon.

Should I get on this jury, I suppose the early days will make up for some of the dullness. And, should I get on this jury, I plan on blogging my thoughts about what's transpired during the day... Though I imagine I will be prohibited from publishing until after the trial is completed. That's fine.