Monday, August 01, 2005

A Minor Crisis Averted

Anybody know a good lawyer? Just kidding, although I came close to needing one.

See, for the first time ever, a summons to jury duty arrived in my mailbox a few weeks ago. I was supposed to show up on August 4th, two days prior to Steelhead. Uh-huh. No freakin' way. Everybody needs to do their duty, but not on August 4th!

The notice had all sorts of dire language about how the courts REALLY don't like granting deferrals unless for REALLY good reasons. No mention of whether two years of training and a half-Ironman triathlon are good enough reasons. I sent back the little postcard asking - no, begging really - for another date, all the while resolving that I was NOT gonna show up on August 4th, arrest warrant or not. (Hence the need for an attorney, though I figured that arresting me would require them to CATCH me first!)

Thankfully, a crisis was averted: my new "show up or else" date is September 22, safely after the season's last tri. Whew.

And if you're a Great Suburban Outback attorney considering me for your jury, you should know that I'm a BIG fan of a concept known as jury nullification, which means that juries can vote any way they damn well please, regardless of the court's direction. So there.

3 comments:

:) said...

Close call!

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

I think the race would be considered a valid excuse not to serve since you have a non-refundable financial outlay involved. I know it would work as an excuse where I live.

Tracy said...

Gah!! Well, rest assured that if worse came to worse, they sure would have had a hell of a time catching you :)