Goddammit. Anyways, it's a petit jury type of summons, so if I am understanding things correctly, it's just about whether or not this is criminal charges or a civil case? I don't know my jargon. But the important thing is that I'm like 99% sure I'm too adhd for this shit. I can only sit still and listen for so long before my brain starts shutting down in self-defense. Either I turn into a complete asshole with no patience for anyone or anything, or... I fall asleep. It's been an issue all through school and well into adult life, even for meetings where I'm interested in what's being discussed and I'm one of the main participants. Even when medicated, well-rested, and caffeinated. I struggle to even see movies in theaters because I am insufficiently stimulated. I was antsy and ready to bolt by the end of Mad Max: Fury Road, which is totally understandable, because what a snoozefest. If I have something to keep me busy while I listen, cool, great, awesome. I'm fairly sure that shit won't fly on jury duty. Never even mind my phone, if I could just cross-stitch and listen it would be a lifesaver, but I'm pretty sure they won't be down with me embroidering 'the space bridge is the cloaca of the soul' while jury things happen. But I've also heard mixed results on whether adhd is enough to disqualify you, and the number of extra steps they want you to take if you have a possible exemption is the WORST. 'here's your summons with an online link and answer this survey in five days or we'll mail you a physical questionnaire in three weeks and this question is auto-selected as yes and if you want to answer no wait for the physical document and respond within ten days.' I think those are all the parameters. Basically, is adhd enough to get you out of this? Is just saying you're adhd enough to do it? Do you have to provide proof of treatment? Do you have to provide examples of no, seriously, I am literally not going to be capable of doing this thing? I'm fairly certain this process is deliberately designed to give people minimal opportunities to bolt, but they've made it REALLY hecking hard to interact with this summons in any way other than 'yes, my liege' Assholes. This is the worst possible scenario for executive dysfunction hell and the memory of a goldfish. I took the summons straight from my mailbox to my computer because I knew that was my only chance at remembering to do the thing, but then.... nope. Time for a million extra steps and significant time delays. The online survey will tell you whether you're qualified to serve, unless you're not qualified to serve, in which case, fuk u.
im not sure if it would be enough to get you out of having to show up at all, but itll probably be enough to keep you from being selected for a jury. ive seen lawyers specifically use one of their instant no-questions-asked dismissals to exclude adhd people before.
That sounds awesome, thanks! My work is very chill about flexing hours, and I'm totally fine with showing up as long as doesn't end with being forced to languish in understimulation hell. My parents said a lot of the confusion trying to google answers may be because of variations in how the process is carried out from state to state, but I'm pretty sure that if if it gets as far as communicating with a lawyer, they're not going to want me to be responsible for making decisions about their client.
in my experience, it went like this enter courthouse on the day they call me enter waiting room and watch an orientation video use my phone and some books i brought for 3 hours get called to jury selection wait as they question potential jurors in small groups get called to the jury stand "i read a lot of court cases in my spare time and love trying to play detective" "judge, get them out of here" go get my papers signed and go home
In my last jury trial, the prosecution and I agreed to excuse a potential juror who has prone to migraines. If you get called to a venire (potential jury), you will be asked if there is any reason you can't serve. Go ahead and tell them you have ADHD and need something to keep your hands/brain busy or you will zone out and not be able to pay attention. You might not get excused for cause, but one side or the other will use a peremptory strike to get you off they jury.
D'you think you could keep something like a worry stone or other widget in your pocket and just fiddle with it unobtrusively, if it comes to it? I don't know if that would be enough to help you, but it does me when I'm sitting through long ass college lectures I need to attend to.
Spoiler: Read if and only if you want to get out of all jury duty forever Jury nullification is a concept where members of a trial jury can vote a defendant not guilty if they do not support a government's law, do not believe it is constitutional or humane, or do not support a possible punishment for breaking a government's law. This may happen in both civil and criminal trials. In a criminal trial, a jury nullifies by acquitting a defendant, even though the members of the jury may believe that the defendant did the act the government considers illegal. This may occur when members of the jury disagree with the law the defendant has been charged with breaking, or believe that the law should not be applied in that particular case. A jury can similarly convict a defendant on the ground of disagreement with an existing law, even if no law is broken (although in jurisdictions with double jeopardy rules, a conviction can be overturned on appeal, but an acquittal cannot). There, now that you know about it no one will allow you to sit on a jury in the US.
Huh, that is interesting!! Thanks! Lucky for me, it all came to nothing. I'm not sure if the numbers just fell out in my favor, or if it was the form thing I sent back telling them that if I could cross-stitch I was fine, but otherwise I'd probably fall asleep (a fidget toy would help, but wouldn't last me more than an hour tops, and I'd probably space out before then). If it ever comes up, I'm willing to offer myself to the jury selection gods again, just with those same conditions. I doubt I'd ever mind going to sit and wait to be rejected and get paid for half a day off work, and I wouldn't mind sitting on the jury if I was allowed to have that entertainment, but I doubt that will ever be chill with the people selecting the jury :P (but funny story, when I was looking at all my little patterns that would be suitable to take somewhere and would be a minimal fuss, I realized that the majority of my favorite options were things 'finally, violence!' and 'I think you underestimate the depths of my pettiness', and I'm honestly kind of surprised I was self-aware enough to catch that it would be really awkward embroidering something like that in the middle of a trial) and ALSO, on a mostly unrelated note, my parents mentioned that I'd probably get questions about how I do a job, or how I did a phd with such bad attention problems, and the answer is that if you bring a giant embroidery project to class and are totally shameless about it, most professors won't challenge you. OR. sometimes. you can recalibrate them to think cross-stitch is a normal classroom activity if you do something like.... crochet a bunch of eyeballs, complete with veins and dangling optical nerves. In class. I forgot I did that. In retrospect, I'm not so surprised I never really made grad school friends XD But I went digging for a sanity check to be sure this really happened, and Spoiler: large? complete with a caption: I know it's my own history, and I was THERE for it and made these decisions and everything, but sometimes I... wonder about me
I was going to mention jury nullification, but Palindromordnilap already did (spoilered above). I was on a jury (in California, in 1994) and the jurors were provided with steno pads to take notes. Taking notes is the only way I can listen to people talking at length, so that was okay. After the trial, I asked the judge if I could take my notes home, and he said yes, so the week wasn't entirely wasted -- I had material for a column. http://lindaseebach.net/columns/1994/04/17/april-17-1994/
