my encounter with American jurisprudence
Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 9:18 am
TL;DR - doing one's civic duty can be a real pain
In January I was sitting in our car waiting for elwing to come out of the grocery. I saw a car parked near the entrance, the trunk open, and a family loading groceries into the car. A second car pulled up behind, the driver honking the horn and shouting obscenities at the family. The driver then took off, speeding around the parked car but clipping its rear bumper and fender as it did so. A few minutes later a police officer arrived, noticed me and asked what I had seen. I told the officer and she asked if I'd be willing to testify if need be. I agreed and gave her my contact information.
Fast forward to this month, and I receive a summons in the mail to appear on May 25th as a witness in a criminal case (DUI). It tells me where to go and when. So on the appointed date and time I show up at the courtroom and go inside, along with 20-30 other people. I sit and wait, watching as case after case is called, listening to the interplay between attorneys and judge, observing the individuals waiting to have their cases called. After four hours, the last case is called. None of them were the one for which I had been asked to appear. After the last defendant left, a clerk came over and asked me why I was there. I explained the circumstances to her. She asked me the name of the defendant, which I didn't know. She then asked for the case number, which I also didn't know (it was on the summons, but I didn't have it with me). So she takes my name and goes over to a computer and does some searching. She apparently found my name, came over to me and asked me to wait a few minutes. I did and eventually a prosecutor came to me and said that the defendant didn't show up. He then gave me a form to fill out, most of which made no sense because it assumed that I was the victim, not a witness, asking questions like "Was my car damaged?" and "Did you have insurance?" I filled out what I could, and then wrote a description of what I had seen back in January. The prosecutor took the form, thanked me, and said, "You will probably have to come back when the trial is rescheduled; we'll let you know."
So after over four hours of idling, I'm free to go. I go back to my car, parked at a meter on the street a block away from the "Hall of Justice", only to find a parking ticket on the windshield. I had put enough money into the parking meter for 2 hours, not 4. So not only did I lose 4 hours of my life, I had to pay a parking ticket for the privilege.
In January I was sitting in our car waiting for elwing to come out of the grocery. I saw a car parked near the entrance, the trunk open, and a family loading groceries into the car. A second car pulled up behind, the driver honking the horn and shouting obscenities at the family. The driver then took off, speeding around the parked car but clipping its rear bumper and fender as it did so. A few minutes later a police officer arrived, noticed me and asked what I had seen. I told the officer and she asked if I'd be willing to testify if need be. I agreed and gave her my contact information.
Fast forward to this month, and I receive a summons in the mail to appear on May 25th as a witness in a criminal case (DUI). It tells me where to go and when. So on the appointed date and time I show up at the courtroom and go inside, along with 20-30 other people. I sit and wait, watching as case after case is called, listening to the interplay between attorneys and judge, observing the individuals waiting to have their cases called. After four hours, the last case is called. None of them were the one for which I had been asked to appear. After the last defendant left, a clerk came over and asked me why I was there. I explained the circumstances to her. She asked me the name of the defendant, which I didn't know. She then asked for the case number, which I also didn't know (it was on the summons, but I didn't have it with me). So she takes my name and goes over to a computer and does some searching. She apparently found my name, came over to me and asked me to wait a few minutes. I did and eventually a prosecutor came to me and said that the defendant didn't show up. He then gave me a form to fill out, most of which made no sense because it assumed that I was the victim, not a witness, asking questions like "Was my car damaged?" and "Did you have insurance?" I filled out what I could, and then wrote a description of what I had seen back in January. The prosecutor took the form, thanked me, and said, "You will probably have to come back when the trial is rescheduled; we'll let you know."
So after over four hours of idling, I'm free to go. I go back to my car, parked at a meter on the street a block away from the "Hall of Justice", only to find a parking ticket on the windshield. I had put enough money into the parking meter for 2 hours, not 4. So not only did I lose 4 hours of my life, I had to pay a parking ticket for the privilege.
