Anxiety Manual
Anxiety guide 1: jury duty
This is specific to u.s. sorry ! If you are from a different country please feel free to submit your own or comment. Also, the process may be different for others.
Okay, hi everyone I mentioned writing a few anxiety guides to things so here is my first one. Jury duty. I served my first jury duty last month and it would have helped to have known this beforehand.
1) you’ll get the letter in the mail if it conflicts with something (a wedding, you are out of state, still in school) you can visit the website and get it deferred.
I lived in a different state at the time for school so they deferred my jury duty until I was back in the state.
Before you get there
2) what to wear: wear things that are comfortable but also somewhat professional, in reality, it didn’t seem to matter, it mentioned to not wear things with logos on it but I saw many people with school shirts and such. I wore nice jeans, sneakers and a blouse with a sweat jacket. If you wear nice jeans with no rips on it and a casual shirt it should be okay. a collared shirt was also be fine, you don’t have to dress super formal.
3) what to bring: I would bring a backpack or a bag with you. I would use an extra backpack if you have one, that way you can take only what you need. You will have to go through a metal detector and have your bag scanned so less is more. Bring a book or a tablet with you, you will do a lot of sitting. You can bring a lunch or you will have an hour to go and get lunch on your own. What we were told was no food or drink or things that are not in a bag. Also, bring a jacket. ( they took the if we can’t see it, then you don’t have it when it came to food or drink)
they also had a table where you could put stuff down if you didn’t have a bag
Don’t forget your jury papers, it has the jury label on it which they will use as a name tag.
You get to the courthouse:
General reminder: the people working there are your friends, they are used to people not knowing what to do, if you are unsure ask ! They might be a little grumpy sometimes but it’s okay.
Okay ready ! Go through the metal detector they will direct you to a line or a room where you will check in and get your parking validated or something. They will then tell you to go to a separate room to wait.
At this point, you can read, play on your phone whatever, they are waiting for everyone to get in.
Next, they will ask the group a few questions usually if you are a teacher or a public employee etc. Next, they will play a video about what is going to happen in the courtroom, what your job is as a jury member. Once the video is over they will have a judge come in a swear you in a jury member (you take an oath idr what it was).
Then they will start calling numbers and ask you to line up. You might get picked, you might not. If you do get picked then follow the directions. The people around you are going to be the people with you for most of the day (maybe). They will give you instructions, take roll and then bring you to the courtroom.
Once in the court room, they will ask if anyone has any hardships (that’s not the word that they used but you’ll know). So if you are in school full time during the time of jury duty, if you have a job that you can’t miss, if you take care of younger siblings or family members(or your children) and there is no one else to take care of them. Basically anything that would be a real burden on you that would prevent you from being able to be there. There will be a LOT of people who do this.
They will also give you dates of the jury duty and a little about the case.
After this, about half the room will try to leave or leave, you can probably still read at this point. Once they are gone, you will be given a questionnaire related to the case. Answer it honestly.
If they call your number, they will ask you to go to the jury box to sit and they will ask you to answer the questionnaire. If you have sensitive information you can ask for a Sidebar. This is where you can talk to the judge and the lawyers without the entire room hearing (So, if you start having a panic attack or something while they are asking you questions you can ask for a sidebar to explain what is happening).
People will be excused depending on how they answer questions and if they would have a bias for the case.
After you say yes or no to the questionnaire you will then be asked a few generic questions, you name, where you live, favorite TV shows, where you work stuff like that. This is for the lawyers to get to know you a bit.
This will go on for a while! People sometimes won’t get through the questionnaire and then a new juror number would be called and repeat the process.
If you called and you get through the questionnaire and the questions, you could be released anyway for no real reason. It doesn’t mean you said or did anything wrong, the lawyer might not have wanted you for any of your demographic information (you might have been too young too many people of your gender, your politics, literally anything so don’t worry about it) you will be thanked and then asked to leave, the guards will let you out.
When you are released: you will be lead back to the room where you took the oath, you could be called back to a different jury or you could just be there until everyone is released at the end of the day.
If you are kept on then congrats! You are on the jury! At this point, hopefully, your anxiety has gone down a bit since you know who is in the room with you, you know how to get to where you are going and what to expect.
Lunch/ breaks
At some point, you will get a lunch break which is an hour. I actually went to lunch with another girl on my jury. You can bring your own and stay in the jury waiting room where you first came in or go outside. Eat lunch.
Breaks:
You will get breaks, as a group, you will be led back to the jury waiting area, they will have vending machines, tv, magazines, bathroom. You can listen to everyone complain. Make sure to remember at least one person from your jury so you know which group to go back to.
General reminders:
1)once you are with a judge remember their name this is how you will get where you need to go.
2)people love to complain about jury duty. Use it to talk to people !
3) it is a weird social situation where people form social connections and want to talk to others since you are just waiting around. (Or you can just nod politely and they will get the hint.)
4) a lot of people will be serving for the first time so you won’t be the only one lost! Make sure to ask for clarification If you need it.
5) the guards are your friends (my apologies if that is not the proper title), ours was super friendly, I had to ask to speak to the judge to be released since I was pretty sick. In the morning when we were walking up to the court room I waited until everyone went in and asked if he could ask the judge if I could speak with them for a wuick moment as I wasn’t feeling well.
4)^ communication is key, make sure you tell them why you are standing there I said to them “ I have a question for you but I’m going to wait till everyone is gone” telling the intent is import. Although I’m sure you aren’t a threat and hopefully they don’t see you as one it’s good practice to tell the employees why you are doing things.
So that was my experience in jury duty ! I hope this helps. Feel free to comment about your experiences. Every courthouse will be different. The best thing to do is to go with the flow and already the guards or employees if you need something.
Thank you for reading this far ! As always please comment on your experiences and what manual you would like to see next !
