Yaicha

The judge was right — the trial lasted two days. We had to stay late to finish, but all of us on the jury agreed that was better than coming back in for a third day. We walked back into court with our verdict at 6:30pm, so not too bad, after all.

The Decision

So, what was our decision? We found that the plaintiff was not owed anything by his former employer, whom he had sued for a bonus that he felt he had earned. For me, it was a simple case, since the plaintiff resigned before the bonus for the past year had been established or paid. Come on, who expects to quit a job and then ask for and get paid a bonus?

Jury of My Peers

I have quite a few thoughts to share about the trial and the experience of being a juror on this case, but first I have to say that I gave my fellow jurors the URL for this blog, and I hope that they will read and comment on what I write here, but I have to admit that has influenced the way I will write about my jury experience. If I had not done that, perhaps I would be more flippant, maybe self-aggrandizing, who knows? I think I probably write differently about people when I think it’s unlikely they will see this blog.

However, I sure didn’t give this URL to the plaintiff, defendant, their attorneys or the judge, so I will be as candid as ever when it comes to comments about them. To respect all parties, I will not use any real names. One reason for that is also that the plaintiff has anger management issues and I have no desire to provoke him, nor to give him any clues about the true names of any of the jurors.

What is most compelling to blog about my jury experience? There are several points that rise to the top, and then I will write another post that goes into more detail.

Us Against Them

First, I noticed the camaraderie that developed among the jurors as time went on. We were a classic case of strangers thrust together and then isolated. No one was supposed to talk to us, except our “minder,” the gentle and friendly Barry, an older obese man who seemed to struggle just to move his weight when he walked us from room to room. True to form, our isolated group bonded, and after two days I think we all genuinely liked each other. Perhaps we were just lucky that we had no truly annoying persons among us.

Waiting for Godot

The next point that comes to mind is the slow and ponderous pace of those two days. Everything seemed to move and happen slowly, with many periods of silent waiting, often while not knowing why we were waiting. We, the jury, felt like pawns being shuffled about. A pawn is not permitted to ask why it has been moved — it must simply go and then wait until it is moved again.

Random Acts of Tedium

I was also struck by the incoherence of so much of the trial process. Outside of the opening statements and closing statements, everything in between seemed almost deliberately random and confusing. Questions seemed to come from nowhere, their significance was not explained, and the answers were left hanging out there as the attorneys moved on tediously through more detail than any of us wanted to hear. Why should the jurors spend so much of the trial confused about why they are hearing all the things that are said? It was like reading a book whose pages have been torn out and randomly re-assembled.

Metamorphosis

I also observed the development of my own judgments about the case, which went from an initial connection with the plaintiff and identifying with his complaint, to a neutral position where I wasn’t sure who I sided with, and then to the conclusion that this man was not due a penny (and then growing impatience at being kept for so long listening to what seemed to me irrelevant details).

Feel the Power

I also went from feeling in awe of the trial process to feeling in charge. At first we were newbies with no idea what we were supposed to do (or at least I felt that way). But by the end of the second day, I was eager to go deliberate and reach a verdict. Far from intimidated, I was ready to embrace my civic duty and render a decision. We literally had the power, and I felt ready to use it, and no reluctance about my right or authority to do so.

Group Dynamics

Finally, I found the deliberations we undertook to be fascinating from a sociological perspective. Different jurors’ biases and personalities came into play, gradually surfacing as our discussions exposed them. We all had heard the same things, yet we had some pretty different perspectives on them, especially at first.

But as we worked through the questions and listened to each other, we reached consensus on the major issue before us: what was the agreement between the employee and employer? I reprised my teacher role from my past, going to the blackboard and pulling from the group piece by piece the elements of the employer-employee agreement as we had heard it testified to over two days. Since the agreement was never written out, we had to piece it together from two days of jumbled testimony, filling in all the details that we could. Everyone contributed their thoughts, and pretty soon we had written out the agreement, reaching consensus on it. I thought it was a pretty effective process, and I enjoyed guiding it.

Let’s Make a Deal

From there, we worked our way through the questions given to us by the judge, with some surprising and frustrating developments and changes along the way. At the risk of self-aggrandizing, I ended up playing the role of deal-maker to get us to a final decision. Although I strongly disagreed with the majority on two important questions — in which I must state for the record that all but one of my dear peers were just plain wrong — I offered to change my vote as long as the outcome ended up the same. It’s complicated to explain, but the questions I conceded on led to follow-up questions on which our group was nearly unanimous, resulting in no award of any money to the plaintiff. So, rather than stand on principle, I compromised so we could reach our verdict in a practical way that achieved the end which I (and all of us) judged to be right.

All in all, it was actually a worthwhile two days. I think we reached a fair decision and it was an honor to be given the power to make it. I’m looking forward to spending the big paycheck I earned ($18 plus 17 cents per mile), too!

Now, if any of my fellow jurors wishes to comment, their input is most welcome, including correcting anything they perceived or recalled differently than I did.