I recently went to visit family for a week and a half (my sister had a baby ) and when I got back in town, on Wednesday, I went and checked my PO box and found a jury duty notice inside. The notice was for the Monday BEFORE I got back in town. The postmark was just 6 days before that Monday.
After a momentary panic, I went online and checked my group number. Luckily, it turns out my group wasn’t required to appear. But, what if I had been required to appear and missed it? The form had no instructions for what to do if you didn’t get the notice on time. I have never had less then a months notice for jury duty before. Could I have gotten in serious trouble, or would I have been able to reschedule after the fact? Does the amount of notice they give you affect what happens?
For the record, I am in California, specifically Butte County.
Certainly have been a bunch of jury duty questions lately. In my experience most court clerks are willing to work with you on whatever issue comes up. They are grateful to those that respond and try to work things out rather than the usual scammers and those that ignore the notices. YMMV of course.
That seems like very short notice - and I am sure you could have used that as a valid excuse, should your number have been called.
Normally you get those notices about a month ahead of time.
They seem to LOVE me…I get jury summons so regularly it is seriously not funny…who the hell did I piss off in the jury selection department?
Here in Las Vegas, they no longer go just from those who voted in the last election (as most places in the US do) they use DMV records. I have gotten a jury notice almost every year since I have lived here, and sometimes twice a year. Just last month I got a notice for the Grand Jury - one day a week for a year!
Luckily, they have made the Grand Jury “optional”, knowing full well few people can keep a job if they have to take off one day a week for the next year (at $40/day payment from them). Kind of sad though, to think your Grand Jury (should you ever have to go in front of one) probably consists of impoverished/retired/chronically unemployed people who actually need the $40 per week.
I’m 55 and have never been asked for jury service.
I have no criminal record*, have a history of respectable employment and have watched ‘Twelve Angry Men’, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, ‘Perry Mason’ and ‘Law and order’.
My husband was overseas when he got a jury duty notice. (I know I commited a felony by opening his mail when he was gone, but the bills had to be paid.) I wrote them a letter explaining he was already serving the country, could they please let him off? It was no problem. Like someone else said, they’re used to people not being able or willing.
I missed a jury duty notice a while back – I was supposed to call in the night before and just spaced out on the whole thing and only remembered it a day or two later.
I wasn’t picked for that particular pool anyway (whew!) but they told me over the phone if you are picked and miss it and call in within a reasonable time – like within a week or so – they’ll just assign you to another jury pool and you call in again to see if you got picked.
I’d be willing to bet most of California is more up to date than my Southern state, which is mostly content to march proudly backwards into history, so I would be willing to bet the same applies. You just call the office and explain your circumstances and the clerk puts you in another pool for service.
That being said when I was in NY state and appeared for grand jury duty they told us that everyone who didn’t come to court to answer the summons would have a visit from Mr. Friendly Policeman to, um, escort them to court. When they request the pleasure of your company they really mean it. But grand jury may be different.
In California they use both DMV and voting records, and the clerk in the jury pool room said that if these records don’t match exactly (like having a middle initial in one and not the other) you’ll get called twice as often.
The judge of the case that I was on said that despite the supposedly random nature of selection, those who serve get put to the top of the list. It seems to work, since I’ve been called pretty much yearly after the case I was on, though I had been called just once in the eight years before that.
And here I am, a registered voter and a licensed driver, 44 years old, and I’ve never had a single jury summons! Not a one. I’d love to be on a jury someday, but they don’t let you just walk in and volunteer.
I figured it would be something like this. I am glad to hear that it probably wouldn’t have been a big deal. I would have actually liked to be on a jury. It is one of those “life experiences” I would like to have done at least once, but despite getting seven or eight notices in my 10 years of eligibility, I have never actually been called in.
I wondered the same thing, so when I went on jury duty, I asked someone in the clerk’s office what happens if you simply don’t show up. A lady told me that they anticipate that several people won’t show up for whatever reason. As long as they have an ample supply of jurors that show up, then nothing happens to the no shows.
If it started happening that not enough jurors were there, then they would have to start taking extra steps. She said, though, that the idea of jury service being mandatory is so entrenched in everyone’s mind that they don’t need to take extra measures to get people to show. This in in Palm Beach County, FL
In some states, including Vermont, deputies can just grab people off the street to serve as jurors if not enough people show up in response to summonses. :eek:
And in Canada as well. They’re called Talesmen. I remember that a judge in New Brunswick had to send out the sheriff a few years ago to round up some jurors. If I recall correctly, the trial was to be in French, and the jury pool that was summoned wasn’t big enough to pull in enough francophones or bilingual anglophones, so off the enterprising Sheriff went, to the local shopping centre, and picked up a dozen or so talesman from the parking lot. Since it was near Christmas, this was not very popular with the shoppers in question, but it’s legal and still happens occasionally when the jury pool runs dry.
) and when I got back in town, on Wednesday, I went and checked my PO box and found a jury duty notice inside. The notice was for the Monday BEFORE I got back in town. The postmark was just 6 days before that Monday.