I was called up for jury duty this week. I had sent a letter asking to be
excused but no luck getting off.
I’ve been called up twice before, the first time I was on a jury while the
second time I got challenged and didn’t have to serve.
This time around it was the Auckland district court so it’s fairly busy with
around half a dozen jury trials running at once. However the whole system
is pretty slow so I took a book (as advised) and managed to get through
quite a few pages while waiting around.
Eventually I was picked along with about 25 others (there were two other
trials starting that day) to go into court, our names were called out on
at a time and people walked forward to take their seat unless one of the
lawyers challenged them. I got challenged so got to go home (well work really)
Monday and another go on Tuesday.
Tuesday we had another twenty-something people go into the court. However it
turned out this was the same trial as Monday. Apparently a witness had dropped
out so they had to restart with a few changes dropped. Of course I got called up
again but the lawyer recognised me and challenged me again (same with at
least 1 other person). Sort of amusing I guess although the charges were
fairly serious.
I get another go tomorrow (Thursday) so I still might end up on something.
The whole process feels very inefficient, lots of waiting around in rooms
with lots of other people wondering what is happening next
