That’s a good perspective on the jury trial, Jack, and I appreciate it. I for one am a tad jaded after my wife was selected for the state grand jury, which required her to travel to Columbia for 3 consecutive days, one week each month, for 2 years. It was supposed to be for 1 year but the state AG reserves the right to hold the participants an extra year if the cases require. Needless to say, with three young children, and two parents working full time, this was not a happy time for us and my thoughts of jury duty were greatly distorted. Coincidentally, I was sent a “survey” about serving on the grand jury the month after she was released. It took me hours to craft the firm yet considerate response for why they were insane to ask this of one family 2 hrs away from Columbia back to back, especially given their “random” selection process.
All that to say, I do appreciate the perspective you shared, as it’s the truth behind the inconvenience.
You bring up something important, though, which is that civic duty shouldn’t be a hardship. For my five days of service, I will be paid $25 per DAY. That isn’t a hardship for me since Seacoast offers paid time off for jury duty. But what if I was a single mother working an hourly job with no such benefit? There’s no need for jury duty to pay lavishly but at worst it should be a minor inconvenience. Same thing with your wife - there are plenty of people who could fill that role for whom it would be far easier and less intrusive.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Since it was so far away and so often, they paid for her gas and hotels, and a small stipend for food, plus the $25 a day you mentioned. This wouldn’t be as big of a deal if I also didn’t work full-time, with young children and no family in town, therefore over the course of those two years we spent hundreds of dollars on babysitters. So in the end, in addition to the inconvenience, it cost us a lot of money. That doesn’t necessarily make sense to me. But, there are many injustices in life, and ours was in no way the worst of them.
That’s a good perspective on the jury trial, Jack, and I appreciate it. I for one am a tad jaded after my wife was selected for the state grand jury, which required her to travel to Columbia for 3 consecutive days, one week each month, for 2 years. It was supposed to be for 1 year but the state AG reserves the right to hold the participants an extra year if the cases require. Needless to say, with three young children, and two parents working full time, this was not a happy time for us and my thoughts of jury duty were greatly distorted. Coincidentally, I was sent a “survey” about serving on the grand jury the month after she was released. It took me hours to craft the firm yet considerate response for why they were insane to ask this of one family 2 hrs away from Columbia back to back, especially given their “random” selection process.
All that to say, I do appreciate the perspective you shared, as it’s the truth behind the inconvenience.
You bring up something important, though, which is that civic duty shouldn’t be a hardship. For my five days of service, I will be paid $25 per DAY. That isn’t a hardship for me since Seacoast offers paid time off for jury duty. But what if I was a single mother working an hourly job with no such benefit? There’s no need for jury duty to pay lavishly but at worst it should be a minor inconvenience. Same thing with your wife - there are plenty of people who could fill that role for whom it would be far easier and less intrusive.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Since it was so far away and so often, they paid for her gas and hotels, and a small stipend for food, plus the $25 a day you mentioned. This wouldn’t be as big of a deal if I also didn’t work full-time, with young children and no family in town, therefore over the course of those two years we spent hundreds of dollars on babysitters. So in the end, in addition to the inconvenience, it cost us a lot of money. That doesn’t necessarily make sense to me. But, there are many injustices in life, and ours was in no way the worst of them.