I can’t speak for everyone, but the main thing I’ve taken away from my jury service has been an overwhelming sense of contempt for the participants. It starts with the scheduling, continues into the selection process and compensation, and even filters down into that distinctive courthouse smell of dust and wood varnish and body odor; in sum, though, we’re talking an impression that you’re needed to fulfill a formal requirement, but aren’t actually valued and in fact constitute a major inconvenience that must be worked around. Especially if you demonstrate any initiative, or indeed any traits at all other than having a pulse and a sponge-like capacity for rhetoric.
I suppose there’s an argument to be made for doing it anyway, but I’ve never been one for martyrdom.
I can’t speak for everyone, but the main thing I’ve taken away from my jury service has been an overwhelming sense of contempt for the participants. It starts with the scheduling, continues into the selection process and compensation, and even filters down into that distinctive courthouse smell of dust and wood varnish and body odor; in sum, though, we’re talking an impression that you’re needed to fulfill a formal requirement, but aren’t actually valued and in fact constitute a major inconvenience that must be worked around. Especially if you demonstrate any initiative, or indeed any traits at all other than having a pulse and a sponge-like capacity for rhetoric.
I suppose there’s an argument to be made for doing it anyway, but I’ve never been one for martyrdom.