Rodricks: Was it a hack or just a ride between friends? A Baltimore jury — with me on it — decides.

Summoned once again to civic duty in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, I found myself this time one of six jurors faced with the following question: Was that a hack or just a friend giving a senior citizen and her son a ride to the Giant in Reisterstown Road Plaza? If a hack, then the ride constituted a violation of the driver’s insurance policy, and the insurance company would not pay for medical expenses incurred by Mom and Son from injuries sustained in an accident that occurred during said hack. Before I go on, some of you might be wondering what a hack is. Kristen Johnson, a native of Baltimore, described it a few years ago in a peer-reviewed journal as “Baltimore’s unique informal transportation system.”