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I've been summoned for jury duty at the end of September. I actually don't want to get out of it altogether, because I don't like the idea of important stuff being decided by the people who are too stupid or too bored to get out of jury duty. But they didn't summon me to the court in Cambridge. (The bus that goes by my apartment goes right there. Or I could walk there, in a pinch.) They summoned me to CONCORD.
They said you could request a change of courts in case a particular one would cause "hardship, not inconvenience." And one of the alternate courts they list is the one in Cambridge, because that has wheelchair access. So does the one in Ayer, which I don't think I could even drive to. The Concord courthouse is problematic for people who can't walk, and it appears to be nowhere near public transit. (Most of Concord is problematic for people who can't drive, these days. But at least it's not Ayer, in Outer Nowhere.) The other alternate court they list is Lowell, which I could reach by commuter rail if I leave at 5:30.
I'm a little afraid they'll say, "You have a driver's license and a car. What do you mean you can't drive to Concord any time we want you to? Should we take your license away?" But I don't really think the jury duty people and the RMV people have their respective acts together that much. I'm more afraid they'll have a standard response for "wants to change location because of health problems," and try to send me to Ayer if they have enough jurors in Cambridge already. On a good day, I could drive to Concord Center in daylight, and only have a day or two of migraine flare in consequence (there's no telling what it will do to my hand)...does that count as "hardship" or "inconvenience?"
In general, Massachusetts seems to be making a good try at including more people in juries, and making the process less unwieldy. The little pamphlet they sent me, explaining the process, was much better than comparable explanations I'd seen in Michigan and New York. (Some of the information appears to be available online at http://www.mass.gov/courts/jury/introduc.htm )
They said you could request a change of courts in case a particular one would cause "hardship, not inconvenience." And one of the alternate courts they list is the one in Cambridge, because that has wheelchair access. So does the one in Ayer, which I don't think I could even drive to. The Concord courthouse is problematic for people who can't walk, and it appears to be nowhere near public transit. (Most of Concord is problematic for people who can't drive, these days. But at least it's not Ayer, in Outer Nowhere.) The other alternate court they list is Lowell, which I could reach by commuter rail if I leave at 5:30.
I'm a little afraid they'll say, "You have a driver's license and a car. What do you mean you can't drive to Concord any time we want you to? Should we take your license away?" But I don't really think the jury duty people and the RMV people have their respective acts together that much. I'm more afraid they'll have a standard response for "wants to change location because of health problems," and try to send me to Ayer if they have enough jurors in Cambridge already. On a good day, I could drive to Concord Center in daylight, and only have a day or two of migraine flare in consequence (there's no telling what it will do to my hand)...does that count as "hardship" or "inconvenience?"
In general, Massachusetts seems to be making a good try at including more people in juries, and making the process less unwieldy. The little pamphlet they sent me, explaining the process, was much better than comparable explanations I'd seen in Michigan and New York. (Some of the information appears to be available online at http://www.mass.gov/courts/jury/introduc.htm )
