jury duty
after getting summoned for the third time, i served on my first californ-i-a jury last week. i had to defer in november because of travel plans that overlapped with the case in question, so i got called back this month. they sat me right down in the jury box for the jury selection with 19 others while the rest of the prospectives sat in the back waiting to get dismissed. i have a feeling it was because i had deferred. fantastic, that dramatically increased my chances of landing on the jury. word to the wise, don't defer if you can avoid it. it could increase your chances of getting stuck on a jury when you return.
it was civil court, so no one's life or freedom was at stake. only $$$$. juror questioning quickly turned to the topics of escalators, high heels, and broken bones. i mentioned that one time when i was a little kid and got my shoelace stuck at the bottom of an escalator and a stranger behind me grabbed my leg and pulled until the lace broke. a little scary, but no blood no foul. i also mentioned my skepticism of an overly litigious society. several of the other prospective jurors riffed on it too and got dismissed, but for some reason it wasn't enough for me and i got picked.
thankfully it was a short, 1-week trial, so not an awful one to get stuck on. some lady fell down a bart escalator. she was walking down the moving escalator in high heels with her hands full when it suddenly came to a stop and she fell and broke her ankle. a plate and two screws later, she got her day in court. you may not realize that escalators are designed to stop and stop quickly to avoid damage and injury in certain situations. like when coins, shoelaces, and small mammals get stuck in them. so most of the testimony was from boring escalator people about what causes them to stop, and if this particular escalator stopped for a good reason. loose screws stuck in comb plate impact switches. riveting.
it's worth noting that it was the busiest escalator at the busiest bart station (embarcadero) and it happened just after rush hour. although it had a record of stopping more frequently than average during the timeframe in question, it also serves about a million patrons a year, so one might expect it to have more problems than average.
in the end, bart didn't have it's act together enough to provide convincing evidence that the escalator stopped for a good reason. they didn't produce the nefarious jammed screw or a single bart employee that was on the scene, and their paper trail was lacking. so we ruled in favor (although not unanimously) of the plaintiff, and gave her most of her stated expenses (medical, lost wages, etc.), but very little on top of that for pain and suffering. she said on the stand that she can pretty much do everything she used to do, so we weren't crying for her. it amounted to about $15,000. she had an expert witness who cost about half that. after her lawyer fees, i doubt she walked away with much, if anything. she really should have settled. during closing arguments, her lawyer overshot and asked for $100,000, so i think he upsold her on going to trial thinking he could get more out of us.
so if nothing else, we kept the system alive. it was sort of an interesting process to see. i enjoyed the long lunches exploring civic center. it's too bad i didn't get a total bye from my day job and had to head in to the office and work into the evening. made for some long days. i wish i had some sort of jury credit that would keep me from getting called again for awhile.
<br> - juror #6
