I’ve always wanted to do jury duty. No, I’m not into true crime stuff— I’ve never even seen a full episode of Judge Judy– I’m just a civic participation nerd, so this is my jam. Having an excuse to go to the courthouse was great– NY county’s is apparently the busiest in the country. Also we all have a right to trial and I hope that if I ever need one, I have a jury full of thoughtful people who take the time to understand the case and give it their all. So when I got my jury summons, I was stoked.
I didn’t know what to expect when I showed up for jury duty in NYC— read on and you can be more prepared than I was.
Caveat: There are 5 jury assembly locations in Manhattan and obviously more in the other boroughs. My jury summons said to show up to the 60 Centre St courthouse, so if you get another courthouse, your experience might be different.
Postponing jury duty
The first time I got my jury summons last fall, it was for a time period that I’d be out of the country. You get one free postponement, so I used it. In the postponement, you can specify when you want to be called. The beginning of the year is lighter work-wise for me, so I put Jan 6. And then I went on with my life. In December, I got my jury summons for Jan 6. I hadn’t blocked off my calendar or anything because I assumed the jury duty postponement system wouldn’t be very precise. I was wrong. If you postpone, block off your calendar for the day you request.
Arriving to jury duty
The jury summons says to show up at 9am. I was already a little late, and then got stuck in this huge line for the metal detector. It probably took 10 minutes to get through. You have to take off your belt and watch and take the change out of your pockets. It’s one of those lines that starts out as three lines and then merges into one, so it doesn’t move very fast even though they’re efficiently getting through a decent amount of people. Pro tip: budget time for the metal detector line. I was stressed.
There’s paintings on the ceiling and walls of old timey American scenes. The paintings do a good job of emphasizing the weight of the institution, reminding you that you’re participating in America’s third branch of government. There’s lots of motifs that evoke your middle school US History book. But also it’s a municipal building, so there’s some half-dead plants and broken drinking fountains that are taped up with plastic. It’s a good vibe– grand, but using tax dollars wisely to just barely maintain it.
There’s no photos allowed in the courthouse. I got in trouble for taking this one in the entryway while I was waiting in line for the metal detector. The courthouse entry has this sweet ceiling painting with personifications of Industry, Commerce, Learning, and, most notably, Agriculture.
The big waiting room
After I got through the metal detectors, I went to the big waiting room which is a couple hundred chairs in rows in a former courtroom. I can tell it’s a former courtroom because the stand is still there– that’s what that big wooden piece of furniture is called, right? The big raised throne where the judge sits and there’s an attached witness box to the side.
In the big waiting room, there’s a video playing about the importance of jury duty service and a primer on implicit bias. The video goes till about 10 am.
I picked up 3 forms:
Juror questionnaire. Questions about details about your profession, years of education, hobbies, and experience with the judicial system.
Juror Information card. This is even shorter to complete. Just a couple questions like birth year etc.
Jury information card. Just information I might need to reference later, like phone numbers I might need if I’m running late .
I sat down and started filling out my forms.
The remote work situation
I thought I’d be able to get some work done from the courthouse on the day I was summoned. I blocked off my calendar so I didn’t have meetings, but I packed my laptop in preparation for a productive work-from-the-courthouse day. I didn’t end up getting any work done– my name got pulled too fast.
The big waiting room is 99% chairs in rows– there’s like 7 outlets and desks in the back, but those were all taken by the time I got there. I found an outlet in the hallway, but you can’t really hear the jury announcements from there. You pretty much gotta stay in the big room. The big room isn’t packed at all— probably 2/3 of the seats are empty.
The WiFi exists, but it isn’t great. No password needed.
I think if you needed to work from the courthouse all day, you could, but you might be scrounging for outlets and hot spotting your phone.
The run of show
One of the jury clerks goes onto the mic. She instructs everyone in the room to complete the forms. You give her your summons and the juror information card. So don’t forget your summons at home– you gotta fill that out and turn it in.
Bill, a guy with a mustache who’s very passionate about the importance of jury service, tells us what to expect for the rest of the day. He asks the room: “Who had a horrible experience last time you served? Raise your hand. We’ve improved. We’re going to give you a great jury duty experience today.” I’m always amazed by people who can give the same spiel every day and care that much about it each time. Bill’s great. He basically lays out 3 options for what our day might look like:
You might wait around in the big waiting room all day.
You might get your name picked and then get selected for a jury.
You might get your name picked and then talk to the lawyers and not get selected. If that’s the case, you go back to the big room and repeat.
In terms of schedule for the rest of the day, there’s a lunch break from 1 - 2:15pm. Everyone in the whole courthouse breaks at that time and everyone is looking for food in the vicinity, so don’t go far or think you can get a sit-down meal. The key here is to either bring your lunch or pick one of the places on Baxter for quick Vietnamese food because their lunch lines move fast.
Then the jury selection process usually wraps up around 4 or 4:15pm. If you aren’t selected for a jury, you usually get to go home around 4:30. You just grab your proof that you showed up and served, and you won’t get called again for at least 4 years.
The juror elimination process
After Bill gives the lay of the land, the clerk starts picking jurors’ names out of the basket to go to the next stage.
My name got called immediately– like within the first 10 names. I got sent to a smaller room with 29 other prospective jurors. The lawyers for the case introduced themselves and let us know they were looking for a jury of 8. From the 30 of us, they picked 8 names at random. Those were the 8 they first started with, and then whittled down from there.
One of the lawyers said it’s more of a juror elimination process than a juror selection process. Because people can get eliminated or basically self-eliminate for all kinds of reasons.
Some people got eliminated because of schedule conflicts. The trial was only 2 days long, but there were people who had important work and medical stuff those days, so the lawyers talked to them privately in the hallway about their commitments and let them out.
College students get an exemption, so a ton of students got sent back to the big room.
Basically as their picks kept dropping out, the lawyers kept drawing more names. Including mine. So that’s how I came to be on a jury. I was able to go home for the rest of the day after the jury selection process. Then I came back on Thursday and Friday for the trial.
The trial
I sat on a 2-day civil case about a very minor car accident. I won’t give all the details of the trial I sat on, since they won’t be relevant to your experience. Rather, here’s my reflections on the process, which are more generalizable.
Everyone showers you with gratitude the whole time. The judge started off saying how appreciative he was that we took the time to serve. That the judicial system, which is a core pillar of our democracy, wouldn’t work without us. The lawyers also showered us with heaps of acknowledgment. They all know jury duty gets a bad rep and so they really don’t cut corners on the very genuine praise. If your love language is “words of affirmation”, jury duty is for you!
You’re the Bachelor– the whole show is for you. If you’ve ever wanted to commission your own private show, jury duty is the next best thing. You’re in an audience of 8 and the whole trial is a show for you. The lawyers are trying to convince you. The judge is basically there to facilitate and translate for you. Lawyers pull out evidence on easels, question witnesses, rehearse their opening statements for you.
Everyone in the courtroom has to get up when you enter and exit– that’s how you know you’re the shit. The court officer goes “All rise. Jury entering.” and you walk in. The guy next to me even whispered the “dun dun” noise from Law and Order for extra dramatic effect.
It really is a show– it’s dramatic. The lawyers are trying to engage you and keep your attention– so their enunciation and body language borders on theatrical. They’re also trying to build credibility– they want you to trust them, to think they’re the smartest person in the room, and to trust their client. They’re trying to impress you. It’s like the Bachelor– the bachelorettes are pulling out all the stops to impress the guy. In a trial, the jury is the Bachelor.
It’s a brief escape from the ordinary– full of mystery and wonder. If you don’t find yourself in courthouses regularly, the whole thing is a cross between 3rd grade and traveling to another country. It’s like 3rd grade because there’s a lot of “Sit in this chair” “Line up in this order”-- you’re just kindof shepherded around and you only half understand the logic behind it all. People give you instructions very quickly that are hard for you to comprehend. You’re worried about getting lost after lunch and not being able to find your room. Sometimes the adults leave the room and you’re bored because they didn’t leave you anything to do. It’s a fun departure from everyday life because in your everyday life, you know how everything works. It was fun to lean into a childlike state of wonder for a couple days.
It’s also like traveling to another country because they have their own ways of doing things that are very different than the way you do things in your country. Like in my country, I take notes during meetings. In the courtroom, the jury can’t take notes. Instead there’s a transcriber in the courtroom who uses this machine to transcribe what’s said verbatim. What. even. is. this.
And the people in the courthouse are used to all these different ways of working. Don’t worry, they’re also used to tourists like you staring impolitely at their funny machines and stately robes.
The end
The trial had the normal components: opening statements, evidence and witnesses, and closing statements. As jurors, we couldn’t talk about the case with anyone, not even each other, until all that was over. Any conversation, research, etc. is forbidden because it might bias you one way or the other. When we finally went to the jury room to deliberate, there were a lot of pent-up comments and questions.
We picked a foreperson to help keep us on topic and make sure all voices got heard. During the trial, throughout your interactions with your fellow jurors, you might want to keep in mind who you think would be a good foreperson. Or if you would want to be the foreperson. Basically you want someone who you think can facilitate an effective and fair decisionmaking process. Then when you enter deliberation, just go ahead and give a recommendation to the group for who you think should be foreperson.
The other jurors I served with all took the deliberation discussion very seriously. We clarified one another’s questions with thoughtful explanations. We listened carefully to others’ perspectives. We had one question for the judge and legal team, which they answered. It was incredibly functional for a room of strangers making a decision with no agreed-upon process for decisionmaking. Our foreman didn’t need to do much. But we only disagreed on minor points– we all came into the room agreeing that the plaintiff’s case just wasn’t as strong as the defendant’s. Our deliberation was quick. Like 25 minutes maybe.
On our way out of the building, we happened to be taking the same elevator as the lawyers, so we asked for the real deal on the motivations behind the trial and the backgrounds of the stakeholders. We got the full story, which was really gratifying since it made me feel like we made the right decision too.
I imagine this end part of the jury experience can really vary. I doubt it’s normal for deliberation to be so quick. And it seems unlikely that most jurors get a debrief with the lawyers after.
But I was fortunate to work with jurors who really put thought into their decisions, and I hope that’s the standard — where, even if opinions differ, everyone is committed to getting justice right.
Leave a comment with how your jury duty experience was similar or different– especially if it was different since that’d be helpful for others to read!
Thank you so much! I'm a new citizen, and tomorrow I'm going to my first jury duty ever. Reading about your experience really helps!
“There’s lots of motifs that evoke your middle school US History book. But also it’s a municipal building, so there’s some half-dead plants and broken drinking fountains that are taped up with plastic. It’s a good vibe– grand, but using tax dollars wisely to just barely maintain it.” Love this!