wispfox: (Default)
[personal profile] wispfox
[also posted to [livejournal.com profile] ljgenie]

I've been summonsed for jury duty in ~1.5 months.

I suspect strongly that my difficulty with processing large chunks of spoken words will make me... somewhat unsuited for such a thing. I don't, however, have any proof of this problem.

Do I just tell them about my concerns, and let them make the decision? Or is there something else I ought to be doing?

I'm perfectly willing to try to go ahead and be on a jury. But I note that I have difficulty with meetings (generally ~1 hour long) if I can't take notes and play a game on my Palm, and even with _those_ aids, I'm exhausted after about 1.5-2 hours. And the pamphlet says I should expect to need to pay close attention for somewhere around 6 hours.

If I'm lucky, I won't be called for any trials, and it won't come up. If not, though, I have a strong suspicion that jury duty would entail the least pleasant and most exhausting mental activity I could possibly be doing, and will make me unfit for human company during the entire time I'm doing it.

I've never before needed proof of this problem, as I'm very good at avoiding situations in which it would come up. So I don't have any. And, much as I'm sure my mother (a school psych) would probably be willing to write something explaining the problem, she's related to me. So probably wouldn't be an acceptable source of such information.

Date: 2005-05-17 05:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] johnpalmer.livejournal.com
The obvious answer is simply to explain your circumstances. Keep in mind that most cases will be relatively simple, and there will be changes of pace (one witness called, another witness called, etc.) *AND* keep in mind that attornies want to keep you interested enough that you don't miss something important.

Many people called to serve never end up on a jury; I've been called twice, once for "one day, one trial" in Philadelphia, and once for a week in Ohio, and in six days, I only sat at a junk trial (one quickly declared a mistrial, due to the ineptitude of the plaintiff (who was representing herself)). As the court folks were fond of telling us (so we didn't feel cheated/used/etc.) many people, when realizing it's about to become "real", realize that a plea bargain is really not a bad idea, or that (in a lawsuit) the proposed setllement really is pretty close to fair.

Date: 2005-05-17 05:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wispfox.livejournal.com
changes of pace (one witness called, another witness called, etc.)

True! I'd forgotten about that. That would help quite a lot.

Keeping me interested... it's less about interest and more about too much spoken information at a time. So this matters less.

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