How to serve on jury duty
How I did it: In December I got a notice telling me I had jury duty starting January 4. In Los Angeles County, they have a phone number you call to see if you have to report the next day. I didn't have to go in until Thursday. Thursday morning I reported to the San Fernando courthouse, and ended up being one of the first people picked for the jury. It was a murder case involving gang retaliation. The case took a month. Every day everyone in the jury met in the hallway of the courthouse and waited for the judge to call us in. In this particular case there were a lot of witnesses to get through. You have to make sure to pay very good attention to what's being said, take as thorough notes as you can, while at the same time watching nonverbal cues such as body language. After several weeks, we were done listening to witnesses and the lawyers made their closing statements, the jury went into the jury room to deliberate. For this case, deliberation it took over a week because there was an overwhelming amount of stuff to sort out, reread, and talk about. We had to go over things again and again to make sure we were being totally impartial... not everyone was at first. The whole experience was interesting, and I'm glad I did it.
Lessons & tips: Keep an open mind. Be on time, and dress comfortably in layers. Pay good attention to details.
Resources: Courthouse staff, especially our judge and bailiff. They answered tons of our questions very patiently.
