Well, after making two calls to the courthouse regarding my name change, Monday morning was my first day in jury duty. They had all reassured me that there would be no slip ups with my name. So, we sat in the courtroom while the jury manager called our numbers for each case. I was left in the courtroom with the last group. Finally, our jury manager walked out and said "Since we are the last group, I thought I'd just read everyone's name..."

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! So, she began with the names. Despite being reassured, I heard nothing about Zoey. I did hear about someone named "Mitchell" though. I tried really hard not to turn red. It was slightly easier because a boy, called out before me had to correct his name from Kristin to Christian. So, when I was called by that name, I sheepishly raised my hand and said with a very small voice, "Umm, Michelle."

So, for about a half hour, I was Michelle. Then, when the judge finally came in, he read everyone's name, as we walked to the front. Finally he said my name. My REAL name. "Is there a Zoey Elizabeth Sloane?" I could tell that he was a little confused, so I walked straight to the bench. He saw me walkingg up to him and he said, "Yes, please approach." He smiled and pointed to the two different names, "These two names don't match, but these juror numbers do match.

I looked at him with pleading eyes, "Yes sir. I've had a name change. I have the relevant documents if you need to see them."

He smiled warmly again, "That won't be neccessary, Miss Sloane. Please have a seat.

A second later the two lawyers approached. The judge, without ratting me out pointed toward my juror number, "This person has had a name change."

The two lawyers glanced at me quickly then they both looked as though they had been hit by a giant boulder of truth and they both said "oooooooh" before regaining their seats.

I was not accepted for the jury. To bad. It would have been a really interesting case. Drugs and gun-running. Oh well.

Z

I was talking more about an officer of the court, like a bailiff or something, being heavy handed about the whole thing, especially if there is still confusion about me.

Z

Attorneys are allowed two kinds of rejection of a juror. Unlimited for cause. Limited number for no cause. They can not use your being TG as cause. Usually prosecutors refuse self-thinking jurors. They need a unanimous vote to get a conviction.

I'm just worrried that on Monday morning, some haggard matron will burst into the jury room and say something like "Was there a *boyname* here? A *boyname* who has had a name change? Anyone?"

Z

Do you think the judge'll waggle his wig?

I think Wendy is right about where the names are acquired from. Here in Chatham County, prospective jurors are taken from the list of registered voters. One day it kind of hit me that I could possibly get jury duty and I hadn't changed my voter registration. That thought got me to the elections office in a heart beat.
Hugs,
Marsha

Zoe,
Jury selection lists are often drawn from sources such as drivers license, voter, other licenses, and whatever list they feel will give them the names of eligible jurors. If you are on some old list they use, you could do all that and STILL get another call in your old name. I sincerely doubt they put any effort into checking lists of people with name changes. That would cost a lot. This way it costs only you time/money. The most likely change is that they will now start to call you for jury duty under BOTH of your names.

Okay, so I recently received a notice of jury duty. This would normally be a slight annoyance and I'd go to jury duty and probably be excluded for some reason or another. But this time it's different, because the jury duty has come addressed to my old name. What raises this to the level of the absurd is that I received my official name change documents AT THIS SAME COURTHOUSE. Since the whole thing is such a cluster fukc, I have to go down to the damn Death Star and clear this up in person, where I can shove all my officially official papers at them.

I know these places are notorious for this kind of thing, but this just makes me giggle in it's stupidity. I hope they don't point me out and talk loudly about the whole thing when I go there.

Z