Civil District Court – Parish of Orleans – State of Louisiana

3.5÷5 duty called, and it wasn’t that bad
okay. you get the letter and you immediately start thinking of all the excuses… oh, i’m out of town (again), i may have questionable morals (likely), i’m unable to process logical information (also likely)…but alas, you realize this time you just might have to serve. so you log online and fill out your survey and await for your first report date. you’re a bit of a pro, so you don’t bother with that faulty phone line. you log on and wait for your next call date.
you’re called in. you show up with your tear-​away juror ID after having parked at the holiday inn across the street which has some cheap daily parking. you know that they won’t reimburse you daily so you don’t even ask — you’re looking forward to the check you get later. you make your way up and scan in — boom, present. you sit down and immediately log onto the wifi and put on your best «i’m disinterested in life and breathing in general face». you feel thirsty, but you know there’s coffee and water in the back corner, cool. you quench your thirst and enjoy the new TV they put in so you can rot your brain on whatever daytime TV offers (the price is always right).
if you’re lucky like me, you never actually get called in for questioning. you just keep checking that online juror site to see whether you’re needed, and when you are you show up, scan, and then get dismissed!

So, now you can call in the night before, or be like me and forget, show up later in the week and pick a new date. The chairs are tough on the rump, not much in terms of personal space and no free wi-​fi. They claim they’re trying, but wahwahahwah… At least you can check out ‘The Price Is Right’ while you’re waiting to hear your number for potential service.

The staff has greatly improved since 2005.

So if you’ve been following my twitter stream, you know I’m on jury duty in Civil Court this week. What can I say it’s jury duty, you’re really bored while you’re waiting around the jury pool room. The chairs are uncomfortable but they do offer free coffee and water. The bathrooms are reasonably clean and the staff is professional and recognizes that most folks don’t want to be there.
Civil court has a leg up on criminal in Orleans parish because you actually call in to see if you need to show up. So instead of heading in on each scheduled day, you call the night before. As of this moment, the schedule is everyday for 2 weeks.