Every eligible citizen has a civic duty to serve as a juror. Attorneys, are no exception and having recently received the all mighty "jury summons" I welcomed the opportunity to fulfill my service requirement while visiting the County Clerk for some billable time en route.

Attorneys are not likely to be chosen as trial jurors for a myriad of reasons. Will an attorney on the jury be overly critical of how the case is presented? Will the jury rely on the attorney's expertise in the deliberation process? Either way, as I completed my juror questionnaire, and followed the panel upstairs to the courtroom, I was certain that by the end of the session I would be excused. This was a criminal trial; and while I had done some trial work over my career, nowadays I was more of a transactional attorney and was actually looking forward to the experience.

Unlike the civil side, criminal jury trials have more defined rules and the burden of proof is higher, "beyond a reasonable doubt." The softer sounding caption of the civil trial identifies the parties (i.e., Smith vs. Jones) and pales in comparison to the announcement of, "THE PEOPLE of THE STATE OF NEW YORK vs. Defendant." Echoing through the courtroom like Michael Buffer's famous line "LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE," this match is carried out through the prosecution and defense counsel's presentment of the evidence. As the trier of the facts, the jury's role is to view the evidence and render a fair and just verdict.