30seconds with MONA GILLS-COLLINS

Organizing juries is a little like herding cats, except potential jurors are often crafty and cunning.

For the past five years, Mona Gills-Collins has spent her Monday mornings rounding up 500 Baton Rougeans and dispatching them into a half-dozen juries. And although she’s heard every excuse in the book—not to mention honest-to-God fear at the very notion of being a juror—she’s as fond of working with people today as the day she took the job.

What prepared you for this job?

I handled lawyer referrals at the Baton Rouge Bar Association and ran the volunteer committee.

I worked in the Public Defender’s Office, then I worked in juvenile court, then I moved over to family court and worked on adoptions for Judge Kathleen Richey, which was fabulous. In juvenile court you see so much bad, so much pain, but in adoptions the people were so happy. Something I started was on the Wednesday before Christmas we did adoptions all day—everyone wants their adoption to go through in time for Christmas.

But what really prepared me was my upbringing. My dad (Charles Gills Sr.) said, “You treat people the way you want to be treated.” He was a contract painter who raised seven children. He and my mom (Mattie Sue Gills, a seamstress) taught me to treat people with respect.

Does everyone try to avoid jury duty?

Believe or not, the majority are ready, willing and able. This is a part of our system, and if you put yourself in someone else’s shoes waiting to go to trial, wouldn’t you want jurors that were willing and able?

You must hear amazing excuses.

Yes. One guy tried to convince me that he was older than 70, but he was obviously like me, in his 40s. But my favorite story was a guy who didn’t want to serve. He used every excuse in the book—and some not in the book. He was chosen to serve on a jury in the murder of a child. The next Monday (after the trial ended) he came back. He waited until orientation was over, and he came up and thanked me for holding his feet to the fire. He said being on that jury let him give that child a voice. It brought tears to my eyes.

What’s the best part of your job?

Seeing people out on the street who say they’re glad they did it, that it wasn’t as bad as they thought. Just last Monday I was in Hobby Lobby and a lady stopped me and said she was so scared beforehand, but that the experience was good and she was glad she did it.

Any advice for someone anxious about being summoned?

In the jury office my motto is, “we don’t sweat the small stuff, and everything is small stuff.” We can work through any [hardship or concern] you have. We’ll work through everything.