Thoughts On The Day

• When a judge gives you an hour for lunch, and 4 of the 45 people in your jury pool decide to not return at all, it makes His Honor a bit testy.
• It is not a wise thing to come back from lunch smelling like a distillery.  But at least you came back.
• It is easy to spot the jurors who are normally working on salary and those who are normally under a union contract.  The jurors who work for a set salary are used to staying until the job gets done.  The union people start to get itchy at hour 5, and get downright irate at hour 7 if they believe they will have to stay late.
• When during the jury selection process the defense counsel plays the race card, you know it's going to be a long day.
• For some reason I'm not surprised that I've told the defense counsel in two criminal jury selections that one of the local prosecutors and I are acquaintances and that his brother is godfather to my children and on both occasions I haven't been chosen for the jury.
• Listening to some of the people who are serving with me reminds me of how lucky I am to have a boss and co-workers who are willing to take up the slack when things like this come up.  I've been at the courthouse for three straight days, and will be spending half of tomorrow there as well.  The clerk tells me that's about par for the course, and I should expect the same thing next week.  The boss and my team seem to be taking it all in stride.
• Amazingly enough, a lot of lawyers seem to be willing to settle when they hear that the jury pool is on its way up.