I didn’t get to watch the lawyers make their cases. That doesn’t happen during jury selection. But I did get to watch numerous potential jurors make a case for being let out of jury duty. I was not impressed. They were alternately huffy and squeamish. Had they been on the witness stand the jury deliberation would have unanimously determined that they were lying under oath. Plus, even with the obvious falsehoods, they utterly failed to make their case.

The lawyers asked straight out, “Can you set aside your past experiences and be objective in this case?”

If you want out of jury duty and you are asked this question, sit straight up. Look the lawyer directly in the eyes and say clearly and in a strong voice, “No.” You might even add a flourish. “No. My experiences have left me with feelings far too strong for me to remain objective.” There. You’re done with it.

Instead, these potential jurors scowled and made great displays of how annoyed they were to answer these questions, and said things like, “I don’t know.” “I’ll do my best, but . . .” “I can’t absolutely promise you.” Of course, then the lawyers had to ask each one of them a dozen more questions. It wasted all of our time and these individuals who so clearly wanted to get out of jury duty had utterly failed to make their case to do so.

BROADER LESSON: If there is something you really want, make your case clearly. Don’t waffle. Don’t be huffy about it. State your desire or belief as directly as you can.

In my case, I told the lawyers I had a speech to give that would require me to be out of state. I thought my speech was pretty important and a great case for not serving. Little did I know at the time how much better that same case could be made.