Intro: I'm Matt Cohen, occasionally referred to in this space as "buddy Matt". Despite working professionally with the Internet since 1989, this is my first blog post.

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday, July 5th), I start a two month term on a Federal petit jury panel in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. Since Federal jury service is much less common than state court service, I thought this might be an informative topic for my guest posts.

Over the coming week I plan to post some of my experiences and thoughts. I'll do my best to read the comments and answer any questions.

I was originally scheduled to serve in May and June, but had to reschedule because of a work conflict. I have a two-week business trip coming up, but hopefully I won't have to reschedule again and can start my service tomorrow.