Jury Duty

I have never been called for Jury duty. I am not sure why not. I am a registered voter and have a valid drivers license i.e. am listed in all the places that courts look for jurors. Some of my fiends have been called several times but it's the luck of the draw I suppose.

Jury duty means different things to different people. It a privileged, and honor for some and responsibility for others but it usually involves some sacrifice. For some it's a greater sacrifice than for others. In some cases it could mean time away from family if sequestered and if you are self employed it could mean a sizable financial sacrifice.

It is understandable therefore that there will always be some people who will try to get out of jury duty. At one time it was not all that difficult for some. Women were almost always excused for reasons that escape most of us today. Doctors and people of prominence who claimed that their work was so indispensable often got excused. And of course in many locations members of minority groups were excluded. This often meant however that juries tended to consist solely of white men and not necessarily the wisest or most objective. Getting a jury of one's peers was not always easy.

So over time the excuses and exemptions have been virtually eliminated. Today if you are called for jury duty you can get a postponement usually one time but just about every one must serve which does not mean that you make it on a particular jury but you must take part in the pool.

Now most people think this is an improvement. It insures or helps us come closer to the idea that people should be judged by juries of their peers. It's fair and equitable. Who is going to complain about this system? Well it seems Psychotherapists. Yes, members or some of my profession when they are called look for all kinds of excuses to get out of their civic duty.

Some claim that their patients need them. Some claim that they are so important that their patients who may be very disturbed crisis-prone individuals can't get by without them. Well I hate to break it to some of my colleagues but psychotherapy is not like brain surgery. No psychotherapist is so indispensable that someone else can't step in. If there is a psychotherapist that can't or won't arrange coverage with other competent therapists for patients that need it that is incompetence pure and simple.

At least they should be honest. They resent the potential financial loss that might result from serving on a jury while they can't charge patients from 100 -200 an hour. One can have even have some sympathy for some one's loss of income unless they are so graceless and petty about it that one loses any sense of sympathy. I have heard members of my profession speak of jury duty as or involuntary conscription, press ganged or even cruel or unusual punishment. Press gangs! Cruel or unusual punishment! That how they see participating as a citizen in a democracy?

Well to my psychotherapist colleagues who think that serving on a jury is some from of indentured servitude or cruel or unusual punishment let me simply suggest two thoughts. First, I wonder how many people over the years have been wrongly convicted of crimes because some people thought they were just too important to be a good citizen.

Second, As we speak there are thousands of men and woman who are making sacrifices in Iraq or Afghanistan that involve more than a minor incontinence or even a loss of income who are defending our psychotherapist's right to whine like a petulant child.

Oh! Perhaps, I suppose if one really wanted to get out of jury duty one could by making a claim of mental defect. However they might also be asked to surrender their professional license.

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