Jury Summons

[mizzwanned]

Does anyone know about this...my date for jury duty is tommorrow morning, but i have school. My 1st date was earlier this year but i just didnt show up cause i didnt even find the letter until later laying around my house. So does anyone know if i can just not show up tommorrow or will i get a fine if i do that? i have school tommorrow and i have to go..this reaaally sucks!

[Epsilon]

Generally, you need to fill out the form that you can't make it ahead of time (like 2 weeks in advance). You should be excused from school though for jury duty. You are required by law to attend jury duty. There are consequences for ditching jury duty including fines and warrants and possible arrests. However, I know at least back in the day absolutely nothing happened if you didn't attend jury duty despite these threats. BUT, this was also back when computers weren't as widely used (my grandma threw all her jury duties in the trash). I wouldn't risk it if I were you. Just tell your teachers that you had jury duty; they cannot punish you.

[mizzwanned]

thanks, i know my teacher would understand but im trying to get an A in this class and i cannot miss work, i have to understand everything for my first test and if i just get the notes from someone its not the same..maybe i can tell him to explain..but jury duty can take forever i heard, and i def. cannot miss that many classes. i will fail for sure, i am thinking of going real early and asking to be excused but idk if that will work. i need it to be postponed until i get a break

[Rae Rae]

My fiance is going through the same thing right now, they sent him something awhile ago and he never responded, well kinda put it off then it was past the date, he called and they said not to worry about it. Then he recently got another one and he responded saying why he can't do it, so were keeping our fingers crossed that they dont want him. This thing said the trial can be 8-10 weeks!

I hope you don't have to go to jury duty, I couldn't imagine missing school, and not getting paid right now. Even though youre required by law, it really puts a setback on your life as a whole! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you!

[Little Bit]

Being a full time student should exempt you from jury duty. It should have been sent in before, but I would just go ahead and send in your excuse.

[LDandPasquale]

I'd definitely go early and ask to be excused...tell the officer immediately when you enter cause most of the time they only ask if you cant perform your jury duty WHEN THEY HAVE A CASE and you may wait all day for a case to come up. As far as school goes..i'm sure your teacher will understand . You may want to give a classmate a recorder so she/he can record the lecture for you? I'm going to Jury Duty Oct. 9th. This is my 4th time going.......apparently the judicial system just LOVES me!

[mblab]

I'd totally go with everyone and their suggestions! I know when I had jury duty I just wanted to go . You can get your summons rescheduled, since being a full time student is a valid excused. But even if you fill out the forms for that you WILL get rescheduled for another date (hoping that the new date doesn't interfere with your school schedule). Since it's too late now (and I'm a total scaredy cat, plus my Dad's a lawyer....) I'd show up EARLY!!!! and get whoever I could and let them know what's going on. (Maybe even embellish if needed that you've got a test later on in the day....)

Best of luck! I know when I showed, I waited for a few hours and then was dismissed. But I was lucky enough to get jury duty for the DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS! So everyone on the docket that day settled! (To get downtown in time I was up before the sun rose by a LOT!)

[mizzwanned]

Well i just finished calling in and spoke to a representative, and told her i have school and she said to call back and tell her when my next break is. I think you get up to 3 postponments, this will be my 2nd. You can serve up to 4x?? i thought you only had to serve once???

[tjdmom]

Usually, you call in and they tell you if you need to come in each day. When I got served last year, I called and they didn't need me until Wed and then I went in and was only there for 15 minutes and now I don't have to worry about it for I think it's 4 years. But you can get into trouble if you don't show up so I would at least call.

[mizzwanned]

my break is dec. 18, will i have to serve on xmas if i put this?

[mizzwanned]

ok so i called for dec 18 and on cause that is when my next break is and they said no thats not good so i had to take it for jan. 5th, i hope it doesnt take long cause i start school again soon after that.

[Ellie May]

Something doesn't sound right about that.
The papers saying that you cannot do it for a certain date do need to be sent in when you get them but you are a student and they can't expect you to take that much time off. I think they should've offered to let you wait til summer.

[Reese1]

I received a summons last year and I was going to be in Seattle for the dates they listed. Here in Ohio, I just called the number on my summons left a message and they called back and confirmed it and said they would put me down for a later date. That's been almost a year and I haven't heard anything!
I wouldn't ignore it though. I remember a woman who went on vacation without notifying the court and they put her in jail when she came back!
I'm sure that's pretty rare, but I would contact them for sure!

[DvlshAngel985]

I know it's our duty but from my experience, there is no way around it, unless you just don't show up or you don't speak english like my parents. I was sent a letter at home (in Los Angeles) and well I don't actually live there I live off campus in Irvine so when I finally saw the letter (my dad collects them and gives them to me each weekend that I go home) it was past the date. My older brother went through this too when in school and he got a postcard saying they will fine him $5000 if he doesn't show up again. Having seen the postcard I immediately called and the representative said there is no excuse to get out of jury duty, not even for students. So they wanted to reasign me to an OC court but since I don't have any bills in my name she said it's not valid, they wanted proof that I lived in Irvine at least 5 days of the week, and I'd have to show up to the one in LA!!!! That's a 40 min drive with no traffic and can turn into an hour or two on a school day!!!! I've been really bad about it and just never called back....

[DvlshAngel985]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

Something doesn't sound right about that.
The papers saying that you cannot do it for a certain date do need to be sent in when you get them but you are a student and they can't expect you to take that much time off. I think they should've offered to let you wait til summer.

Summer doesn't help either...I took school all summer to get ahead and the representative thought I was just making up excuses. I offered to have something from the school as proof and she just dismissed me as a liar. They're mean in LA