I'm actually doing jury duty right now, for a criminal trial (you could get called for civil, too, but you won't know until you're in the courtroom).
Day 1 was a lot of waiting in the jury room. Every now and then they would call in about 40 people to go to a courtroom as potential jurors. I arrived early in the morning and was sent to a courtroom around 3pm. Of those 40, 12 jurors and two alternates were selected. They started with a pool of 18, asked everyone questions like whether they had any criminal history or not, whether they trusted/distrusted police officers, etc.
If you sit on a trial, you'll be listening to evidence for 3 days to a month (1-2 weeks is probably average). After that, you and the other jurors will meet in a back room and see if you can come to a unanimous decision.
All in all, though, you're most likely to not be on a jury, just waiting around for a long time. Bring a book/laptop/sudoku or something of that nature for sure.
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