Today....

I got paid $25 to drink coffee and read surprisingly current magazines.

I arrived at the courthouse prompty at 8:30 as directed. I made my way to the holding tank, and...held.

We read, we surfed the web, (but I decided not to bring my laptop) we chatted, we paced, we watched daytime television (but no CourtTV or local news), we snacked.

At noon, all but 11 of us were told they could leave for the day because all the cases on the docket had been resolved except one. My panel was asked to report back at 1:30.

Most of us were back by 1:00, thinking we would be going in for jury selection (only six of the eleven on the panel would be needed). But we didn't. We waited some more.

At 2:00, we were told the case had plead out and we could go home.

I was really kind of getting excited about sitting on a jury. At first I was just pissed off at the world over the entire situation. But then I began to relax and realize it might be interesting to see the judicial system at work.

So I was actually disappointed when they let us go. Plus, you know...we'd been sitting there all day. It seemed like a big fat waste of time to have waited all that time, only to be dismissed.

The court clerk said she would try her best not to schedule our panel on the calendar tomorrow since we had been there two days in a row. But...there are 246 cases pending this week, and they have to plan as if every one of them is going to trial.

So who knows.

I have to wonder if this is the most efficient way of doing things.