Jury Duty, part 1: It Sucks

So, yeah, so far, jury duty sucks.

It’s not that I had to get up at 7:30am, when I normally sleep until 9:30.

It’s not that I had to take the subway during rush hour, when I’d normally just spend my day working at home. (I realize I’m not getting any sympathy for those two items.)

The biggest complaint is that sure, there’s WiFi for the jurors. But it costs $8 A DAY.

WTF?! $8 a day for WiFi — in a state courthouse? Come on. Throw us a friggin’ bone. We’re stuck here for a minimum of two days, and let’s be honest — the ambiance ain’t pretty. (I’d take a picture, but they confiscated my camera phone when I arrived.) And it’s not like I’m particularly eager for conversation with my fellow jurors as we wait endlessly in a windowless room with fake wooden wall paneling. Really, the only way I can pass the time with any sanity is if I can go online and conduct some level of business with emails and such. So I’m forced to suck it up and pay the damn $8.

It’s super fun to be in this frame of mind and have this awful attitude before they call me in to be questioned for a potential jury. It’ll take all of my self-restraint to not use the attorney’s questions as an opportunity to bitch about the lack of WiFi — or even, say, a window. Would that qualify me for release from the jury, or would I just be held in contempt?

Comments

Newman says

8 bucks is a lot, it's true. That's like airport wi-fi coinage.

Still, I'm not sure it should be free. Somehow I'm not so comfortable with my tax dollars going towards Mackey's free wi-fi access. ;-)

Anonymous says

It's not like they don't have the internet there already. It costs only a bit of hardware for them to supply Internet access. Damn cheapscates.

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