Jury Service

Went for jury service for the first time in my life today. If you're American, over 18 and am a resident of whatever state you're in, you're bound to get called once a year. No pictures because this is LA and celebrities do get called in for jury service too and do not want to be harassed and this has become a court rule. I have no idea if this is only for CA or all other states are the same too.

How it works is you go to court at 7.45am and expect to be there until 4-5pm and not a second earlier. Throughout the day you will sit in the assembly room and wait for them to call for a panel every 30 minutes or so where you will be ushered to a courtroom and asked questions to see if you're fit to serve as a juror. If you pass, good luck cuz you'll need it for the next 7 days as you travel back and forth the court (which isn't near at all, took me 40 minutes by train, no way you want to be stuck in LA traffic during that hour of the day) listening to a case but if you're excused, woots you are free to go and won't be called until a year later.

OR!

You can end up extremely lucky and not get called into any courtrooms at all and just spend your entire day in the assembly/waiting room when they later find that they have met their quota for the day. WHICH WAS ME HECK YE-AH WOOHOO! But yes I still had to wait until 4pm before I could leave :C

Yes, it is one heck of a looooooooooong day.

Bring your own entertainment. They have a few computers (20 mins usage limit) and free wifi but facebook, twitter, lj and all the good stuff etc. are blocked so there goes your entertainment...

All I can say is thank technology for PSPs and DSes omg total life saver of the day as I can alternate between a million games, web surfing, listening to music or watching videos. Seriously, go invest in one if you haven't already.

Also, if you have a DS, take it out of your bag and put it the container provided at the scanning machine because apparently it is extremely suspicious looking on their screen and I was stopped and sternly told to step away from the bag like it will blow up the moment I touch it and to please state all items in it wteff.

Court is..... sadly NOTHING like these Ace Attorney games (supposedly based in LA for the NA version) which I am currently addicted to :C

Apparently, cute prosecutors and defense lawyers like Miles Edgeworth & Phoenix Wright do not exist :CC

I swear I would gladly attend court for as many days wished if it were Miles hurhur. I do not get why people favor Phoenix over Miles cuz yea Phoenix may be cute but hot damn Miles is GORGEOUSLY SEXY. He got his own game after beating Ema Skye (eww, who wants a game based on a teenage girl really) in the fan polls and is the 2nd most popular game after Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days :D

But back to topic, the average age of lawyers around there could very well be 48 :CCC

Since I didn't get to sit in a real courtroom (not like I want to anyway really), I didn't get to hear lawyers shout OBJECTION! which I will shamelessly admit was what a tiny part of me secretly wanted thanks to those AA games :3

And thus I content myself with playing said game then instead.

Highlight of the day: Stories told by court workers lols.

1. A guy once put his ex-wife's name down on the emergency contact list and under 'relationship' (eg: sister, wife...) were the words 'pretty rocky' hahahahaha and I thought these things happen only in movies rofl.

2. Two people once met in that very room for jury service, chatted and ended up coming back the next day to get married wteff. Very sad when you think about it leh! Not I say one. The guy in charge said that and that we were on no account to find our soulmates on his watch XD

3. Guy once wore a black t-shirt and on it were huge white lettering of the word 'GUILTY' and since then, shirts with inappropriate words are banned hahahaha people. Beach wear too which makes me wonder just what is wrong with the people that even this has to be stated.

Anyways, by the time it was over, I was so zombiefied I couldn't even think straight. For some reason, I couldn't sleep the night before, kept falling from one dream into another and so I was literally awake for more than 24 hours and functioning purely on endless cups of coffee the horror I will never do this again *shudders* So taking sleeping pills the next time.
 
That or imma start bringing pillows and blankets to court wteff.