Matt,
Seeing as how its in Wooo-ster...I'm assuming its a state case, rather than a federal (located in Boston) case.
1) Postpone it - If its not a good time, just postpone it saying you will be away on already planned vacation time or something - they'll send you another one a few weeks later with a new date - one that will probably work for you.
2) state cases rarely last longer than a day. I just had jury duty and all we did was sit around - watch a video - fill out a paper - and read magazines. They had 25 cases - all 25 were resolved without a jury - all resolved between the defendant, lawyer and judge. We were out of there by noon.
3) you can bring a book bag. they'll check it when checking into the courthouse - for security purposes obviously. In fact, I remember one girl had a bag loaded with books and she did homework all while she was there.
4) Long cases RARELY exist now in the state of MA - The LONGEST you can go now for a state case is 3 days. I think the judge said something like 99% of the cases do not go past 1 day - most getting resolved without a jury.
Its the federal cases you gotta worry about - you could go there for months and months at a time! That sucks!
Hope that helps.
-Hugo
