True enough, but I was responding to Hari Seldon.
Sure, but there’s no guarantee someone didn’t manage to place a redirect on an otherwise valid .gov site.
The post that expressed suspicion about the printed URL advised to go to the site for the Clerk of Courts for that district, which is, of course, at the same URL.
And, BTW, have you ever heard of a phishing attempt that involved actual paper mail? I know I haven’t.
In addition, it’s a demand that he complete an online questionnaire, not a jury service summons.
I have a car, a beat-up old Toyota that I would drive to the Moon if they built a road there. I am not trying to get out of jury duty.
True, a rogue employee or hacker theoretically could have compromised and taken control of the site and placed a malicious page there. But you can say that about any site on the web. What are you going to do, not use the internet?
FWIW, I went to https://www.moed.uscourts.gov/ and it looks legit to me. The SSL certificate is valid. There is a problem with the page in that some elements (probably some images) are not delivered via https, but I would guess this is an error in the page’s construction rather than anything malicious.
If the postcard had instructed you to show up at your nearest lake, with a pole and bait…then maybe it could be a fishing scam.
I wonder if you could deduct mileage expenses from your taxes if you do have to serve (and they don’t reimburse).
From the first paragraph:
"Jurors also are reimbursed for reasonable transportation expenses and parking fees. Jurors also receive a subsistence allowance covering their meals and lodging if they are required to stay overnight. "
If you do need to go, ask about their policies beforehand. I would think that 160 miles a day (80 miles each way) would qualify for some reimbursement!! At the federal mileage rate (50 cents or so a mile) that’s actually a considerable amount.
By the way, you were not out of line in wanting to check if it was legit; there actually are scams related to “jury duty”; one of the links on that page I posted before discusses the topic.
That page talks about jury duty scams involving phone calls or email. I still think ones that involve actual postal mail are extremely rare.
The IRS views those as personal expenses, hence they are not deductible.
And, in any case, the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated all miscellaneous deductions that were formerly subject to the 2% floor.
I was referring solely to federal courts as well. It is a bit odd but understandable that there may be regional differences on policies.
As a side note: Whoever set up the courts’ websites was quite logical: cand.uscourts.gov takes you to the Northern District of California federal court, txsd.uscourts.gov is Southern District of Texas, etc…
True enough - but given the existence of the other scams, it wasn’t outrageous of Homie to question it.
I got essentially the same thing as what the OP got, from CA Central District (www.cacd.uscourts.gov), but they included the whole paper survey, and said the online version was also an option.