Jury Duty

So, yesterday was my make-up date for Jury Duty that I missed in January.

I was pooled into a group of 40 other potential jurors and we headed up to a District Court.  I was pumped, thinking that this particular trial would be some sort of Felony crime.

Wrong.

It was a civil trial.  The plaintiff was suing the defendant for allegedly "defrauding" him over a business deal involving investment property.  Not only that, both parties lived out-of-state, but because the property involved in the defrauding was here in Texas, the plaintiff chose to have the trail here in Texas.

Voir Dire started, and I didn't have issue with any of the questions asked by either lawyer.  It did take awhile, as both lawyers had multiple questions, and a few of the jurors volunteered information as they had experience with real esate investments and how the money matters worked.

I was the 3rd potential juror out of 40, so then they took a recess (and the pool was outside the court room) so that the lawyers could "strike" the jurors they didn't like/want, I felt I had a good chance of being seated.

Wrong again.

I wasn't chosen.  Meh.  8 women and 4 men were chosen, and none of them under the age of 45.  Interesting make-up.

I chose to stick around though, and listened to the opening statements and the examination of the Plaintiff.

From the opening statements I got the feeling that the plaintiff was suing the defendant because she had referred him to the parties who were actually responsible for defrauding him.

The Plaintiff really came across as an idiot while being examined and was requesting a lot of money.  $200k for mental anquish, and somewhere over $500k for actual damages from the fraud.

If I had stayed to watch the entire trial, I don't think the plaintiff's case had a lot of merit.  Some possibly, but unless the defendant actually participated in the fraud (and if she did, where are the criminal charges?) I don't think I could have voted for the plaintiff.  But, I didn't stick around, so I didn't get to see all the evidence and testimony.

Oh well.

So ends my first ever Jury duty.