After lamenting the fact that a friend had received a Summons To Juror earlier this year, and that i had never, it was such a surprise to find one in my letterbox yesterday afternoon!
On January the 19th i’ve been summoned to attend the court to sit in on jury duty. On the documentation received it states that jurors usually sit for between 1 and 5 days, or longer depending on if the accused pleads guilty or not guilty.
For my time i get paid $30/day plus transportation costs to and from the court house. I had no idea they paid people. My interest is mainly about seeing how it works and if it’s as good as watching Criminal Intent on tv. Somehow i think it will be different in real life, especially as it’s real people’s lives that are on display.
Since Japan has only recently started to bring jury duty into effect in Japan, Yasu has never served as a juror so he is quite interested in it too. Sadly for him he won’t be able to serve as a juror unless he becomes an Australian citizen, which won’t happen because that would mean he would have to give up Japanese citizenship.
My mum thinks i’m nuts for getting excited about jury duty as every time she has been summoned she wrote in an excuse why she couldn’t serve because she hated the thought of doing it. I think most people are like that. I guess i’m just an oddball who watches too many crime shows on tv!
