BONUS QOD

Filed in National by on January 27, 2009

Why aren’t Jury Duty Return Envelopes postage paid? I received my first ever jury duty summons and am sitting here looking at an envelope that has is not postage paid, YET has the return address the exact same as the Mailing address….

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  1. cassandra_m says:
    January 27, 2009 at 5:43 pm

    I’ve never lived anywhere that had a prepaid envelope for Jury Duty summons. The stamp is the least of your problems with Jury Duty here. Expect to leave your phone in your car and don’t even think about bringing your laptop in. (At least that was true a couple of years ago when I did have jury duty AND appeared as a witness for a trial some time later.)

    Completely medieval.

    But perhaps they’ve changed.

  2. anon2700 says:
    January 27, 2009 at 5:50 pm

    Nope, no cell phones in courthouses. In Georgetown, there’s not even a place for you to leave your cell phone at the checkpoint and pick it up later. Fear of IEDs, maybe?

  3. Mark H says:
    January 27, 2009 at 6:00 pm

    There’s no place in any of the courthouses to leave that stuff. But really, would you want your phone thrown in a box and maybe you get it back?
    anon2700: I think the issue is with recording devices/camera phones. But realistically, they probably ought to update the list as everyone has a cell phone now
    As to the postage, I think that if both addresses are the same, the postage due would go to the courthouse.

  4. cassandra_m says:
    January 27, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    In the Wilmington Courthouse, there are some (very small) lockboxes in the parking lot next door. The cell phone restriction is tough (I found out that I no longer knew how to make a collect or credit card long distance call), but the no laptop thing is just brutal. Some of us could get a lot of work done in all of that sitting and waiting.

    Edit: Can you take in an iPod or other music or video device?

  5. Donhusseinsquishviti says:
    January 27, 2009 at 6:31 pm

    I was just going to ask that! I have an Itouch with wifi…

  6. karmicjay says:
    January 27, 2009 at 7:09 pm

    You may not be able to use the wifi at the courthouse I think. That is how I remember when I had jury duty at the Wilmington court house. Also take a book, might help. They do have computers on the floor where you first report for jury duty, with internet access.

  7. R Smitty says:
    January 27, 2009 at 7:41 pm

    When is your potential date? I just returned a questionnaire, but the process changed a bit since I did it four or five years ago. Back then, you got a notice with a date. Now, you get a notice with a two month range that you MAY (but likely will) have to report. My two months are March and April.

  8. Donhusseinsquishviti says:
    January 27, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    2/17

  9. anon says:
    January 27, 2009 at 7:53 pm

    Can you take in an iPod or other music or video device?

    If it’s concealed in your nose, sure.

  10. R Smitty says:
    January 27, 2009 at 7:56 pm

    Oh jeez, here goes that topic again.

  11. Dana says:
    January 27, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    My daughter just received a jury duty summons, a week after she left for basic at Fort Jackson. Hope the county will accept that as a reason not to be there!

  12. Donhusseinsquishviti says:
    January 27, 2009 at 8:13 pm

    less about you dana, more about me

  13. Unstable Isotope says:
    January 27, 2009 at 8:50 pm

    Dana,

    I’m sure she can get out of it. I think you can fill out the questionnaire for her.

    DV,

    Am I in trouble now since I’m not discussing you?

  14. Joanne Christian says:
    January 27, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    Hef–Send it back C.O.D., registered, and confirmation receipt requested.

    Dana–my friend was scheduled for jury duty 3 days prior to neurosurgery for a brain tumor–MD wrote the letter himself to excuse her. DENIED. Still had to report and be dismissed. She passed away less than 3 months later–but not without having done her civic duty I guess. We did laugh; but that’s the system.

  15. Brian Shields says:
    January 27, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    I know one old timer who has “beaten the postal system” as he puts it. Every year I get a Christmas card from him with my address in the return address spot, and a fake address as the mailing address… with no stamp. It gets marked as Return to Sender, and delivered for free.

  16. R Smitty says:
    January 27, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    Ruh roh. He may call it beating the postal system, but the Cliff Clavens of the world call it something else. The black helicopters will be circling you shortly, Brian. 😛

  17. Political Observer says:
    January 27, 2009 at 9:53 pm

    In Wilmington the cell phone restriction has less to do with recording than it does potential witness intimidation in drug cases. They want to make it very difficult to sneak a pic of the snitch on the stand out to the budies on the street waiting to jump the guy.

    And if you think the state is going to pay for any more postage than it has to with a $600M budget deficit, you are dizzy from the lack of oxygen. Be glad you’re going to get 20 bucks for doing your duty….

  18. Von Cracker says:
    January 27, 2009 at 9:59 pm

    Hey, DV’s employed again!

    😀

    Hang in there, Champ!

  19. anon2700 says:
    January 28, 2009 at 1:17 am

    Mark H,

    I’ve been in courthouses in other states that have a warren of cubbyholes at the security stop. You drop off your cell phone, pocketknife, keys with can opener, etc., and get a receipt, then pick them up on the way out. Simple and secure. There are cubbyholes in the courthouses here, but I’ll be darned if I know what they’re for. Maybe they’re for the attorneys, who are Special People… that whole lame “officer of the court” shit.

  20. Dana says:
    January 28, 2009 at 6:58 am

    Mrs Christian wrote:

    my friend was scheduled for jury duty 3 days prior to neurosurgery for a brain tumor–MD wrote the letter himself to excuse her. DENIED. Still had to report and be dismissed. She passed away less than 3 months later–but not without having done her civic duty I guess. We did laugh; but that’s the system.

    In all my years, I’ve only been called once, and was never set to serve on a jury then. Now, after 24 years in noisy industrial environments, I couldn’t serve: I’m hard of hearing, and the worst part is trying to understand voices.

    Oh, wait, I’m sorry: this was about Donviti. Will someone please send him a stamp?

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