Since 1998, I’ve been traveling quite a bit for business. One of the benefits of my schedule has been the ease of getting excused from jury duty. All I had to do was respond with: “I’ll be in ‘name the city’ that whole week and have already booked non-refundable airline tickets”. It worked every time. I never lied and never felt guilty. However, I started to feel like I was missing out on something; so I committed to try to serve this year.
I received a notice in April and sure enough, I had a trip to Denver planned for the same day. In my note asking to be excused, I asked them to call me to schedule a day when I knew I’d be in town. The next morning I received a call, and we booked it: August 19th. (I had a trip planned on the 20th and knew that I’d likely be home on the 19th.)
Not only did I get called for a trial, I was selected and had the opportunity to participate on the jury… and it was awesome. Why? Below are three reasons I enjoyed my day of serving on jury duty, and why you should serve if called…
- The concept of judgment by peers needs to be experienced to feel its brilliance. I’ve always known how lucky we are to have a legal system of due process and judgment by peers. However, I never felt how brilliant our system was – knowing and feeling can be so different. Sitting on the jury last week, looking at the individual on trial, making eye-contact, and knowing that I was part of making sure he was innocent until the state proved guilt was powerful. Not powerful as in “power trip”, but powerful as in being part of the integrity of an incredible system.
- Everyone treats you like gold. It’s easy. Really, it is. I showed up at 7:45 am. There is a special security line for jury members with hardly any line, there are dozens of tables at which one can work, wireless access, coffee, snack shop, and the nicest people that treated us like we were doing them a favor. In a way, we were; but really we were just fulfilling our part… which leads me to #3.
- I felt great about doing my part. I mentioned earlier that I never felt guilty about being excused in the past. I never did – after all, I was doing my part for society by working hard, paying taxes, and giving back to my community. Looking back, I still have that same attitude. However, I felt excellent when I was done. I felt like I did something outside of my comfort zone – something besides writing a check or helping small companies grow – something that everyone can do and should do. Ok, let’s get things in perspective – I gave a little over seven hours of my time. I didn’t risk my life (actually, I didn’t risk anything). I didn’t leave my family for months, nor did I donate thousands of dollars. I simply served on a jury, but it felt very cool to do so.
Most of the people reading this are pretty sharp, and very busy. You probably get out of jury duty in the same manner I did for years. Next time you receive your summons, accept it if possible. If you can’t, let them know you’d like to at another time – they’ll work with you. Don’t do this because the system needs you, do it for yourself… you’ll be glad you did.
