Jury duty is over! Hurray.
I can’t say that I am happy with the verdict, but it was certainly a fair process – everyone taking turns to express their opinions and standing up for important points. Still, my side was voted down.
This was a civil case about a young woman who believed that a service manager at Wells Fargo bank had discriminated against her due to her pregnancy. She said she was subjected to unfair working conditions, such as the boss telling her that she should get her tubes tied, along with being forced at 8 months pregnant to stand rather than sit during the workday (her chair removed by the service manager), shortened lunches and breaks, and also being ordered to straighten up the stock room, which required a lot of bending and lifting. She also claimed that she had been bullied by the manager in front of other employees, which three witnesses verified was true.
Still, my fellow jurors wanted more concrete evidence before awarding her any damages. They were not convinced that she was credible and were hesitant to rule in her favor. I believed she was credible, as did a small but passionate contingent. Alas, we could not overcome the resistance and Wells Fargo won the case.
I do believe that justice was served. Twelve peers sat down for 2 and ½ days and went over every piece of evidence several times to come to a reasonable conclusion. This was after 10 days of testimony.
I wish I could have been more persuasive, but that is not the point. Everyone had the opportunity to think carefully and then cast his/her vote. The votes just happen to fall not in the direction I was hoping.
I liked my fellow jurors. They were honest and decent people who took their jobs seriously in this case. So did I. No one complained (much) and no one asked to speed things up. We accepted that this was the process and we systematically worked our way through it.
We left as friends.
I am relieved it’s over, but am glad I had the chance to take part in this democratic process. We are a lucky country indeed to have people willing to take time to work through these issues.
Hurray that my job is done, at least until next year.
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