I got a jury summons and I’m really anxious about it. What should I actually expect?

First – the anxiety is completely normal. Almost everyone feels it. The unknown is the hardest part, and the system doesn’t do nearly enough to prepare people before they walk through the door. Most people will be excused long before being selected and the good news is, if you have a legitimate reason for not being available to serve it will almost always be granted. So there really is nothing to worry about, you may miss a day of work, but once you've finished your week of calling , or appeared for a pool, we wont call you again for awhile.

Here’s what actually happens:

You show up on your reporting date, usually to the courthouse in Port Orchard. You’ll check in and join a pool of other potential jurors. After check in there is a short video to watch. From there, one of two things happens: you get called into a courtroom for voir dire – the selection process where attorneys and the judge ask you questions to determine if you’re right for a particular case – or you wait and eventually get dismissed because your pool wasn’t needed that day.

Most people who report for jury duty are not selected to serve on a trial. The odds are in your favor that you’ll be in and out in a day. The larger the number on your badge the safer you are, usually. If you are selected, you’ll know immediately and be told what to expect from there.

A few practical things that reduce the anxiety: bring something to read or do during the wait. Definitely bring something to drink, its going to be a lot of waiting. Especially if you need to fill out a questionnaire. Dress comfortably but respectfully. Bring your own lunch or be prepared to get something near the courthouse, you are almost always given 90 minutes for lunch, sometimes it could be a little less if voir dire is underway.

What I want to build is a plain-language guide that tells you all of this before you get the summons – not after you’re already anxious about it. That information should be on our website, easy to find, written for a real person, not for a lawyer. It isn’t right now. It will be.