Doing the "Duty"

My presence has been requested to appear at the Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court today. Well, technically, I was supposed to go in earlier this morning, but when I called last night, they said I had to call later in the day to see if I even had to come in. Let me tell you that this system is much simpler than what I had to deal with in San Diego.

Several years ago I was summoned to Jury Duty. I had to go to Downtown San Diego to the courthouse. I was ushered into a room, given a badge and told to sit down and wait. Knowing I had to be there for a little bit, I had taken a book so that I could pass the time quicker.

Time passed and my group never got called. The whole morning passed and we were dismissed for lunch - 90 minutes at that. When I returned to the courthouse, I sat and continued reading.

I was never called into a courtroom. Plenty of people were that day, but not me. Now, I wouldn't have minded going into a courtoom and possibly even getting onto a jury, but the fact that I wasted an entire day (though reading an entire book is not a complete waste), instead of being at work.

That is why I like this new system. I call the night before I'm supposed to show up and find out if I even need to. As it is, I have to call in an hour and find out if I need to go in this afternoon. I'd prefer not to, but if I have to, I will do my Civic Duty and hopefully not have to read an entire book before being called into a courtroom.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, I will not need to appear at the Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court today. All jurors in my group were dismissed. Oh well. At least I didn't take the whole day off just to wait. Definitely a much better system than San Diego.