Ain't no justice

No, I haven't been locked up in a jury room all this time, but I might as well have been: Monday I spent at the courthouse, and Tuesday my back went out for some reason -- maybe because of all of Monday's standing around in drafty A/C.

I got to the courthouse for jury call at 8:30 Monday morning, along with 150 or so of my fellow citizens in a courtroom that held about 80. It was SRO.

A judge fluttered in after about 90 minutes, swore us in, led us through some statements en masse, and told us that our good turnout had been so discouraging to some criminal defendants that a few dozen of them had pled out.

My number came up, and I was among the 20 prospective jurors who assembled in a civil courtroom on the fourth floor. The case involved two sisters suing a brother for misappropriating $300,000 of their mother's money via a power of attorney.

The judge had each of us give a short life story, asked if we knew any of the parties to the case and turned us over to the plaintiffs' lawyer for questioning. I raised my hand when he asked if anyone had ever used a power of attorney.

He zeroed in on me for specifics, and when I used words like "fiduciary," "ethical responsibility" and "full accounting" I saw his eyes light up. He probed for details on how we'd handled John Gray's affairs for the last 10 years.

He peppered other prospective jurors on an array of topics, and we broke for lunch.

When we resumed, the defendant's lawyer questioned us for a good, long while. Then all the parties, the judge and the court reporter went into the jury room to make the selection. An hour later, I was the first prospect to be excused, thanked and sent home.

I was half disappointed; it could have been an interesting case.

Robert and I went out to La Trat for dinner -- and there at the next table was the plaintiffs' lawyer with his expert witness CPA.

"You would have made a terrific juror for me," he said, "but the defense wouldn't have you. You did things the right way, and they were afraid of anyone who'd follow the rules that closely."

I took it as a compliment.