I'm on jury duty this week. I checked online after 5 PM on Friday like a good citizen, and I'm in a group that did not have to report first thing this morning, but rather in the second group that is supposed to call in between 11-12 to see if I need to go in after lunch.
But when I started checking the website this morning, it was down. The whole Santa Clara County Court website is down.
So at 11, I called the number on the jury summons instead. And got a message that the jury information number was busy, so they were transferring me to the operator; and then that number said they were busy and transferring me to the backup operator; and then that number said the backup operator was busy and to try my call again later. HUH??
So I found the number for the Santa Clara County DA's office, and got a human, who made some calls, and found out that THE ENTIRE SCC COURT WEBSITE IS DOWN BECAUSE SOMEONE STOLE THE COPPER WIRE FROM THE AT&T SUBSTATION THAT CONNECTS THEM TO THE COURT. Seriously, they have no alternative backup plans for when the website goes down? Here in SILICON VALLEY???
The DA's office said that the court expects its website to be running again by the afternoon (too late!), and gave me an alternate number to call - and that number had a recording saying something along the lines of "The MagicJack customer you have called is not available at this time; please try your call again later." MAGICJACK?? Isn't that like still using MySpace or AOL??
I am embarrassed for my county, and confused about what I, an upstanding citizen and attorney, am supposed to do. I sure as **** don't want to voluntarily show up at the court, with no requirement that I must do so, and when almost nobody else will, and therefore get pressed into jury duty that of course I don't really want to have to do if I wouldn't have otherwise had to!
Moral dilemma. I am going to opt to stay home, I think, because if their internet is down, I don't see how the court can even be functioning today.
(My title is of course wondering whether this is like when a student calls in a bomb threat to avoid taking a test they are not prepared for.)
But when I started checking the website this morning, it was down. The whole Santa Clara County Court website is down.
So at 11, I called the number on the jury summons instead. And got a message that the jury information number was busy, so they were transferring me to the operator; and then that number said they were busy and transferring me to the backup operator; and then that number said the backup operator was busy and to try my call again later. HUH??
So I found the number for the Santa Clara County DA's office, and got a human, who made some calls, and found out that THE ENTIRE SCC COURT WEBSITE IS DOWN BECAUSE SOMEONE STOLE THE COPPER WIRE FROM THE AT&T SUBSTATION THAT CONNECTS THEM TO THE COURT. Seriously, they have no alternative backup plans for when the website goes down? Here in SILICON VALLEY???
The DA's office said that the court expects its website to be running again by the afternoon (too late!), and gave me an alternate number to call - and that number had a recording saying something along the lines of "The MagicJack customer you have called is not available at this time; please try your call again later." MAGICJACK?? Isn't that like still using MySpace or AOL??
I am embarrassed for my county, and confused about what I, an upstanding citizen and attorney, am supposed to do. I sure as **** don't want to voluntarily show up at the court, with no requirement that I must do so, and when almost nobody else will, and therefore get pressed into jury duty that of course I don't really want to have to do if I wouldn't have otherwise had to!
Moral dilemma. I am going to opt to stay home, I think, because if their internet is down, I don't see how the court can even be functioning today.
(My title is of course wondering whether this is like when a student calls in a bomb threat to avoid taking a test they are not prepared for.)
