First day, park in the metered spots and Show up for selection wearing a maga hat. You’ll be excused for the remaining time, not taking a side here, just stating an observation of the current political climate. No lawyer will risk you because he/she won’t want to make a public alliance with a maga hat. Your jury duty will be fulfilled.

If you want to change the system, start a petition at the courthouse to require parking for jurors. Don’t lay your junk out on a table for them. Your taking too much personal exposure in your battle. Imho. Good luck!
Note: I’m not a lawyer but I did stay at a holiday inn express last night.....

As said, park at a expired meter and send the form.

Personally I think they should provide parking for the jurors. If they expect you to show, they should have arrangements for parking.

Here comes the sarcasm part... If you get picked, wait till the last day of the trial and when the defendant walks in you get out of the jury box, walk over and hand him/her a bill for your parking. The judge and prosecutor will love that.

You know civil courts use jurys as well right? Do you want to have to pay in order to have someone get money who fell in a pothole instead of watching where they were going. F that.

It seems like today that you can just say that you have "deeply-held religious beliefs" about anything and you're off the hook. Don't like gays? "Deeply-held religious beliefs." Don't like other minorities? "Deeply-held religious beliefs." Don't want to be a juror? "Deeply-held religious beliefs."

I agree with the OP. It's the principle of the thing. They should provide parking. Where I live, the courthouse is roughly 20 miles away. There is no direct public transportation and I am not about to walk several miles to get from one place to another. Fortunately, our court system provides remote parking with bus transportation to the courthouse. Last I heard, the government is of the people, by the people, and for the people. Seems to me that sometimes the government thinks we work for them.

As a citizen and one who benefits from what this country offers, I believe it is a civil duty to serve. That is why I gave a few years to the US Military....maybe I'm old fashioned.

if the case is about parking tickets you will not get picked!

Yikes! I'd hate to see your reaction if they brought the draft back.

JK. I would be annoyed too, but would most likely just deal with it to avoid further frustration and problems. I know, I'm a whimp.

I fought the law.....

and the law won.

People need to stop making the Trump jokes about Austin, because what many of you not from here don't know, is that Austin is basically Southern San Fransisco in terms of politics. It's maybe the most liberal minded city in the entire south. And as such, entitlement runs very, very deep.

Let me tell you about my last jury duty summons back in 2016. Right at the end of 2015 I became vitamin deficient, and developed head to toe nephropathy, including in my eye balls. I was 100% impotent for 17 days, until thankfully I was advised to take b12, as no doctor knew what was going on, and I didn't produce a single tear for over 4 months, which as you can imagine did my eye health no favors. I could barely walk, my hands were so sore I couldn't tie my shoe laces, wearing clothing made me feel like I was going to go nuts from the sensation of fabric on my body, and my mother had to leave her own mom, who had just had a stroke, in the hospital and then hospice, to come and take care of me for over 5 months. I spent 20k on doctors who were no help, lost 40 pounds in like two months, and to this day can't even be around smokers as it flairs up my symptoms. I also made out a will for the first time in my life because until my symptoms started to improve I was pretty sure I was going to end the madness myself. But you know what I did do during the height of all of this.

I went and sat at jury duty!

And it sucked as you can imagine, and yea, I didn't pay for parking because I had to have my "mommy" drive me to and from, but I did it because that is part of living in our wonderful society.

Ever watch one of those locked abroad shows? In many countries including Mexico, I'm sure parking for Jurors is not a problem because if your arrested, they take you to prison and then eventually inform you of your guilt and sentence, all without ever making you do something as tedious as having to sit at a jury trial. Or actually any trail for that matter. Problem solved!

Listen dude, I do get what your saying. Honest. And I would never judge you as a person entirely off of this because maybe your just having a bad day or week like we all have and this was one of those things that set you off. I"m sure your a lovely person and we would be friends in real life based on what I'm sure are many commonalities. And I hope everyone else does the same.

And I do agree that us having to pay to park sucks. Although Gambit3113 brought up an amazing point that having cities pay upwards of 30k every business day isn't probably the best solution. Truth is, I think the way we do jury duty is flawed and could be vastly improved in every area including this. And if this was just a discussion after the fact, that would have been amazing. But it wasn't.

I guess most of your problems with this is that your fighting a petty cause in front of it and not behind. I think had you just paid the six bucks and then came here to vent about it, and discuss the broken system, then probably far more people would be on your side. And you would have had the high ground because you were "victimized" by it. But at the end of the day, we are only talking about six bucks and you at least were presented with many alternative solutions. I don't' think we get to do that parking meter trick here in Dallas, and we barely have meters here in Dallas anyway, so I for one just pay the six bucks and move on with my life when confronted with this issue. But the main point is, you probably would have had a much higher ground in your case had you vented after the fact. I think few people here are seeing you as a modern day Norma Rae on the six dollar parking issue.

For the record, I payed 75 dollars once to park at AT&T stadium, and it was much further from the door then I felt it should be for freaking 75 dollars, but I digress.

In conclusion, I'm sure you are aware of both who made this rule, and who can solve it? Your city council and Mayor. Go to them if your unhappy with your local civic government. They and they alone are responsible for this. You may think this is a Federal thing, but it's not even close. Thankfully due to state and city rights, it is on a local level that we decide many aspects of our jury system. Your jury service in Austin is not what everyone in the United States does. I know small cities that have you serve for 30 days straight, but you call each morning to see if your needed. You rarely are. My suggestion is to go to your next city council meeting and voice your frustration there. I'm 100% certain they will tell you why they don't give a single F about your concerns, but it might make you feel better.

And you could always run for Mayor on the 6 dollar a day parking issue. Maybe you'll rally enough support to win, and then we will all be like "You know the mayor of Austin is a close personal friend of mine on Pinside."

Good luck on your election in 2020.

Count the hours you have and will spend on your approach. When it is all done, remember you could have spent this time on pinball fun or been paid. There is right and there is right and no one will care in the end. How much stress and time are you willing to put into saving the price of parking?

By the way, we don’t live completely free in the west. We have to register our cars, pay taxes, stop when a cop pulls us over etc.

This thread gives me hope and I’m excited to read it. This can only mean, that it is possible, that one day, I to will have nothing more pressing or important to do on a Saturday than complain about a optional parking ticket that may need to be paid sometime in the near future. I can’t wait.
Gotta go check the wood working forum. I posted a molecular biology question and I’m waiting for a response.

And all this time I’ve been paying my own subway fare like a dumbass to get downtown and do jury duty once every 10 years.

If I only knew the courts were responsible for these expenses!

In my county they pay for parking, and pay you the great sum of $12 / day. No shows get arrested. Have someone drop
you off, and pick you up. Best alternative.

Exactly. Works like a charm. I'd say what I wrote but no need to start a shit show.

I think you are picking the wrong battle. Go perform your civic duty. Enjoy a few days away from the humdrum of your daily job and be thankful that our country allows us to be tried by our peers and not just pick suspects up in the middle of the night and make them disappear. At least not all the time.

If only it way that easy. My letter stated I would get "X" amount a day, that amount was "XXXX" behind my normal wages. Screw civic duty, my family is more important than some loser drug addict, who is guilty anyway...

Take a bus and/or walk from the nearest bus station. No one is forcing you to drive.

I've been to Austin a number of times without a vehicle and it's very easy to get around. Why not bike, catch a bus or ride one of those Bird scooters that you see every 10 feet when your downtown?

Trump jokes? Where? The only mention of Trump in this thread has been made by you, I think.

I’m not even sure what point you are trying to make here.

They said they would waive parking tickets for your first day. If you are selected they will pay you $40 a day. Plenty to cover your parking.

I don’t see where you will actually pay for parking.

So I don’t think you are being mental. I think you are just being a dick.

If you want to get out of jury duty, you could always follow the footsteps of Larry David.

Ugh, I was gonna stay out of this, but funds for the legal system come from taxes. So you're basically saying you'd rather pay higher taxes than pay directly. Between govt red tape and most people's income brackets around here, you'd be paying more.

Then what does this mean?

I don't think people fully understand just how much of a shit show Austin driving, public transit and downtown parking is these days. Back in the day there was lots of parking choices and even free city parking. The free parking as a bit of a walk but it existed. Now that free parking lot is a paid lot. A lot of the old "cheap" $5 parking lots are just flat gone with buildings in their place now. The parking garages that used to be somewhat reasonable are $15-20 or more. The meters downtown are pretty cheap except that I've personally driving around where I was trying to go for over an hour just trying to find a spot to park. Downtown Austin is a fucking catastrophe these days.

We basically have 2 options for public transit. I don't have personal experience with either of them but I've known others that have. A rail line that will get you into downtown but from there you could be walking quite a ways to get to where you're going. Then there is Capital Metro buses. Typically when I've known people who have used the bus they basically have to tack on an extra like 2 hours to their travel to get where they're going.

Austin has not invested into parking or transit and has instead let corporations basically dictate how things go.

With all of the serious issues like if the Yellow Brick Road Edition being worth 11.5k I am glad that we are able to take the time to debate such trivial issues as to if we should pay money for parking for jury duty.

The letter says “No *guaranteed* Juror Parking”...which I take to mean, there is probably not ever enough parking for the amount of people that *may* show up, so nothing is guaranteed. Then the letter gives you crystal clear options to get reimbursed for parking at a metered space. The city will wave the feel if you follow the steps. Not seeing the problem. At all. You rounding it up to creeping totalitarian boots crushing your neck for eternity and “Enduring financial hardship” just sound like someone looking for a fight. Maybe try reading it as people trying to make a complex system work as opposed to your 4th grade teacher yelling at you......generally speaking, most people want to make things work in these situations. Unless someone just preemptively and rudely picks a fight of course. Everyone here that said “Choose your battles” were spot on. Also - asking on Pinside for non pinball related legal advice? Then being frustrated when all comments aren’t just reinforcing whatever you needed reinforcing? Not even touching that one....

Did i really just read a thread where someone is bitching about paying for a parking spot ........ Lord dont come to DC your brain may explode.

You live in the USA and own pinball machines. You are richer and luckier than most of the planet by those two facts alone. Outrage over $6 has cost you way more than $6 in time spent emailing the state and complaining on Pinside.

If you really think this is an unfair expense, why not spend some of that time writing to your elected state officials trying to get the rules changed instead?

I'm exempt by law, but still got a summons. So I went, got paid a full day of work, parked in a designated lot, got bussed to the court house. Sat and watched a room of idiots not know how to use a DVD player. Got out of my seat in disgust and started the movie, then watched said movie. (Jury room) After two hours they told me I can't serve on a jury, already told them/emailed/mailed/phoned etc.... Was then given a ride back to my vehicle and enjoyed my paid day off . Just suck it up..

? Everyone is supposed to pay taxes, so it wouldn't be selective based on who goes to jury duty.

What you should be complaining about is the disproportionate burden jury duty parking has on those with lower income than you. And in turn the impact that has on who sits on the jury, and how it affects the poor standing trial, since their "peers" aren't there.

No need for my response.

Boy, there’s a lot to unpack in that rant. None of which is relevant to the issue at hand, per se.

They are not the ones who dictate this policy. If you are serious about getting this changed you need to talk with those who actually make up the budget for your County. It sounds like what you want is for them to allocate tax funding to reserve parking stall for all jurors. That's a perfectly reasonable request. It's probably going to cost a bunch of money and they will have to raise "your taxes", but that's how you would actually go about getting this policy changed. Taking "the brunt of [your] anger" out on the Country Court employee who is simply implementing the policy isn't going to accomplish anything. Instead of doing that, I would suggest calling them up and politely asking them who you should talk with regarding potentially changing the policy in the future. Assuming you can gather some support, it's something that they could consider for the 2020 budget. Additionally, you could ask if they knew where you could find meeting minutes from when that policy was last discussed. My guess is you are not the first person to suggest this, so there is likely already a discussion in some minutes somewhere where you can read about some of the challenges with providing free parking to all jurors. Decisions like this are often complicated and perhaps there is a reason why they are encouraging you to use public transportation or to park in a metered stall, which it sounds like you can do without any penalty, as long as you follow the procedure to turn in the expired meter ticket. Perhaps after jury selection they will assign you a parking pass for trial.

When I was called to jury duty there was a parking garage that I had to pay to use.

But my employer continued with my pay and the court paid the )10-$12 per day. The parking fee was less than the court house pay. So I was not out any money.

I enjoyed the week at jury duty in an air conditioned room with nice chairs instead of being on my feet in a summer hot factory.

I had no complaints.

However, the young mother with 3 kids was not as lucky. She worked for a small shop that did not pay for jury duty. I also knew who here boss was and he was not hurting for money.

Since you are being paid by your employer and the court you are not going to be out any of your own money, so unless you are going to do some of the things suggested like write letters and otherwise get involve for making changes for those who are not getting paid, like the young mother, or in some other way fall on your sword for the ones who do not get the deal you are getting, I do not understand why you are so against doing something that is a needed part of our society.

I don’t know how prospective jurors are selected where you are at but around here if you have a car resistered in your name you are eligible to be called as that is where the pool of prospective jurors are picked from.

Here's an analogy that fits well IMO.

We have to pay taxes. For those of us outside of Texas and a few other states, this means both Federal and State Income Tax.

We are required by the IRS and our States to calculate our own bill and pay accordingly. Let's call that our civic duty. It will keep us out of prison if and only if we do it correctly.

I prepared my taxes this year, basically with pen and paper. My only cost was printing several pages on my inkjet printer and two first-class stamps. Total out-of pocket cost was about $2.00. It took between 1-2 hours of my time to collect necessary documents and fill out the paperwork and double-check calculations. This is equivalent to me riding the bus to Jury Duty. Since I have filed taxes more than 25 years as an adult and I have spent about 15 hours in Jury Duty, it is a safe assumption that taxes are comparably more time-consuming.

I could have hired H&R Block or my local CPA to do my taxes for a couple hundred dollars. This is equivalent to parking my car for a week during Jury duty. More convenient; less hassle.

Also, I could have hired Stormy Daniels' lawyer for ten grand to devise some scheme to (probably illegally) get me out of my civic duty to pay taxes. This is equivalent to getting a chopper to shuttle me to Jury Duty where I lie to the judge to get excused from the panel.

Do you think that the government should pay my $150 bill from H&R Block or my $10,000 bill from Michael Avenatti because that is what I chose to pay to most conveniently comply with my civic duty?

Zitt, I think you should one, reread the first several posts in this thread, yours included, and then two, maybe consider ending this thread if the responses are bothering you this much. It's maybe not going to resolve to your satisfaction. But when you reread the posts, read the bottom of your first post where you invited peoples opinions. You did that, and now your mad that the opinions aren't going the way you want, and I think you need to keep that in mind that you solicited all of this.

And keep in mind that I get your anger. I really do. I think everyone does. It's not the big things in life that get you, it's the little things. The time they didn't put extra big mac sauce on my Big Macs, even though I paid 45 cents each for it, and some 20 year old assistant dbag child manager is telling me that one extra squirt of sauce is extra sauce. And now I'm ranting and raving in the store like a crazy person.... over .90 cents in sauce. But I felt like I was egregiously wronged. And what sucked is, sure I could escalate it, and call his manager and the regional manager, and then call the corporation, and then write the paper, and make a homemade sign and picket, and so on. But at the end of the day, it's for .90 cents in sauce. At now that I'm in my 40's I have learned to pick my battles. And fighting the big fight for .90 cents in Big Mac sauce shouldn't be one of them. So after looking like a crazy person, I left and just used the drive through for a few months until it blew over. Sure I know felt the need to wear a trucker hat to disguise myself, but whatever.

But letting it go was hard to do because I'm still upset about those little slights all the way back in high school. Because it's always the little things that stick with us for ever. It's the human brain. It equipped me to deal with my dads death, but not that time that ugly chick put me down for having a receding hairline. "Well your face looks like a horse Becky, so who are you to judge!" Evolution didn't prepare my DNA to properly contextualize, process, and rationally deal with the little problems. And as you get older you hopefully come to realize this. Those who don't end up stabbing their wife when she, once again, (Yes I'm talking to you Karen) sticks the peanut butter knife right into the jelly instead of getting another clean knife. (There's a special place in hell for those people anyway, so I say let Satan take care of her.)

So when you tell me that this six bucks has irked you to no end and you want to fight it, I get it. The problem though is you are not only yourself wanting to grab a pitchfork and march over 6 bucks, but you want us to as well. And guess what? If I'm going to get off my lazy Big Mac eating butt and march, it's not going to be over this. Like most people, I have a lengthy list of garbage that irks me on a daily basis, and if I was going to grab a pitchfork and join a mob, it isn't going to be over six bucks in parking to not get picked for jury duty every 5 to 10 years.

It's going to be over that Big Mac Sauce. And I think most feel that way as well. About marching for their petty irks. Not about marching for my Big Mac sauce problems. But if you want to I'm available next Saturday.

But once more, and I think this is the most important part....You invited these responses. You asked a bunch of random strangers on a pinball site to chime in, so I'm not sure just how upset you can get if they don't agree, nor do I think you should even care.

I agree it's garbage, and I for one am all in in hearing how it went. Seriously. I'm the guy who does attend city council meetings about 10 times a year because I love the drama of watching citizens who feel neutered by something the city has done, scream and yell at the city council one after another. I'm litterally there in the front row smiling ear to ear, so yes please take this all the way and let us know how it goes. Now I can't wait for an update.

But you did ask for peoples opinions in your opening post. Remember that.

Wow. (Slowly backs away from thread, watching closely that no one follows)

Zitt,
Passion, kept under control and deployed toward a higher purpose is a powerful thing. At 60 years old, one of my biggest misses in life is that I didn’t point my passion toward a higher good often enough. Irritants like the one you are experiencing, I have had as well and they only served to zap my strength and disturb my peace and distract me from a higher purpose.

I can't wait to find out what happens when OP finds out they don't pay for lunch ...