63. Jury Duty

A court clerk has her day brightened by an unexpected splash of enthusiasm at work.

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

INTRO MUSIC 

I’m Nora McInerny and it’s going to be okay. 

And this very surprising okay thing comes from a listener named Sue. 

Caller: I work as a court clerk and one of my duties is jury management, which means every six months I get several hundred angry phone calls after spending time sending out letters to about a thousand people requesting that they fill out an online qualification survey. As with many customer service jobs, people are not friendly to the other person on the line who has absolutely no control over.

Who gets the letters and who does not. But this morning as I was scrolling on Facebook, I saw a post from a high school friend who got her qualification notice and was actually excited. I read a few of the comments, and although some were not excited about serving, others were, maybe it’s just the popularity of true Crime podcasts, but I’ll take the excitement over the disdain for serving as a juror any day.

I’ll spend the next couple of weeks fielding more angry calls and having more people hang up on me or curse at me or come into our office and throw a fit. But this one post gives me a little bit of hope that there are still people out there who want to do their civic duty and will gladly take the time to serve on a jury.

 See what I mean? Who saw that coming? Who saw jury duty being the thing? That was, that was somebody’s okay thing. Honestly, me, I’ve always wanted to do jury duty. I got called for jury duty in Hennepin County, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

When my husband Aaron was dying of brain cancer, he just went on hospice. That sounds like a fake excuse. I was very concerned when I called in to say that I couldn’t do it, that they would think I was faking it. Would somebody fake something like that? I don’t know. Do you remember going to college and suddenly everyone’s grandma died at midterms or finals and they couldn’t finish their paper?

I know grandmas die. I know some people have more than one. Some people have more than two grandmas, some people have a plethora of grandmothers. You think they’re all dying when your papers do? Really? I was very concerned that they would think that I was faking it. Um, if you get to live out my dream and you get selected for jury duty and you can afford to step away from your job to do a slightly paid civic duty, And participate in our American criminal justice system.

Go ahead and do it. Make Sue’s day. And if you can’t do it, at least don’t ruin Sue’s day by calling her and being mean cuz she did not personally select you. You are not being personally targeted to have your day or your career ruined. 

OUTRO MUSIC 

I’m Nora McInerny, and it’s going to be okay. 

And by the way, if Maricopa County is listening, I do follow you on TikTok Maricopa County. I am ready, willing, and waiting to get the call the minute you want me. I’m there. I am there and I will be attentive. I will be the best juror you’ve ever seen, people. I’ll become a legend in the jury community. Sue will talk about me even though. I don’t think that she is a court clerk in Maricopa County. She didn’t clarify, so.

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CREDITS