An update on my subpoena!
30The bad news: the defendant didn’t show, so I didn’t get to be sworn in or testify.
The good news: I got to sit in court for about 30 minutes. Real trials, even at the municipal level, are fascinating! I can easily imagine becoming a courtroom gadfly in my golden years. There was a lady who got snippy with the judge because she wanted her husband (who isn’t a lawyer) to represent her. The bailiff was standing by in case things got out of hand. And then there were two gentlemen who were having a very calm and dignified disagreement about whose fault it was that one hit the other. I was pulling for the fellow with the memory loss, but maybe that’s just because he was testifying for the city and I’m such an establishmentarian suckboy. In any event, the defendant was super polite and accepted the judge’s (not unsympathetic) ruling that he had erred.
More good news: I’ll get a small check from the city for showing up! I might have it bronzed.
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I assume that they entered a bench warrant for the defendant? That’s going to really hurt their chances of being found not guilty. Unless they have an awfully good excuse for the judge. I’m glad you had fun. Too many people are unwilling to contribute to our justice system which is one of the things that have significantly undermined it’s value.
@moondrake I believe the city attorney recommended to the judge that the defendant be held responsible for the accident, and the judge agreed. I didn’t follow the particulars, but it didn’t seem like she was going to be in extra trouble for not appearing.
In other news, I’m excited for the google bots to find this post and link me forever with the term “establishmentarian suckboy”, which currently has no search results, even though “establishmentarian” connotes religious not secular authority.
It would thus join “opiatic sussurations” on the short, disappointing list of my poetic gifts to humanity.
@UncleVinny Wait, you get a check for showing up after a subpoena? Really? I didn’t get paid after showing up for a subpoena after a car accident that wasn’t my fault and it was across the state. And I got paid $35 for 16 hours of jury duty. How is that fair? Stupid legal system.
@sammydog01 move to Seattle! It’s a socialist paradise over thisaway.
@sammydog01 @UncleVinny I take it from the “it wasn’t my fault” qualifier that you were one of the parties actually in the accident. You should not be paid for such court appearances. @unclevinny was an independent witness with no relationship to the people involved in the accident. It’s appropriate that he should be compensated, although I don’t think we do it in our juridiction.
@moondrake I thought the whole concept of a subpoena was that they could arrest you if you didn’t show up. Or I wouldn’t have driven 4 hours when they gave me one.
@sammydog01 Yeah if you don’t show up you get a contempt of court arrest warrant - at least you do here. A friend of my kid’s had blown off court dates for 3 traffic tickets and had not paid the tickets. So they then put warrants for her arrest out (around here they don’t usually hunt you down, rather if they ever stop you for anything you get arrested on the spot). She got stopped for something and had a nice little trip to jail. My kid happened to be in the car with her at the time. I got called to come get her. I then (my kid only had a learner’s permit at the time) walked 1.5 miles to rescue her car so it wasn’t impounded (costs $60/day plus fees to get it out of impound). Stupid asshat friend of hers never even thanked me for coming and getting it.
@sammydog01 Yes, they can arrest you if you don’t show up. Do not ignore a subpoena. When I had to testify for my employer, the City gov’t, in a civil suit, I got a subpoena even though I was meeting frequently with the outside attorney to help prep the case. He said it was just a formality for the witness list. After the trial I got a surprise check from him for $200 witness fee. City policy is that when you sit a jury during work hours, you are supposed to surrender your stipend check to the city cashier, but in practice they let us keep them as the paperwork isn’t worth it for an $8 check ($15 now). So I took the witness check to the cashier and she said, just keep it, we don’t have any kind of account for that sort of thing. It was a nice bonus.
@UncleVinny I was going to ask, if you’re establishmentarian, does that also make you antidisestablishmentarian? I’ve always wanted to use that in a sentence!
Your post reads like an episode of Judge Judy. Great people watching!
My one trial as a juror the judge was awesome. Really made an effort to make instructions clear and had a pretrial quick ed session with us then after held us for 30 more minutes for a read out to help him/bailiffs/lawyers/etc improve. If I could have him every trial, I’d serve every day.
I’m a geek.