I was excused because I had college classes to teach every week day.
I prefer this version: Do we really want justice decided by 12 people that weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty?
Medical concerns may be the most common way out of jury duty, but some judges are complete assholes. My wife received a summons when she was nine months’ pregnant. She presented herself to the judge prior to the appointed date to claim an extreme medical issue and that she, in fact, had a doctor’s appointment on the date in question. He told her she would be subject to arrest if she failed to appear as ordered. She missed the doctor’s appointment to answer the summons as ordered. She was not impaneled. The baby was dead three days later.
My confidence in judges regarding jury duty has never recovered.
My god - I would think the judge’s behavior would be actionable. Did you consult an attorney?
I can’t even imagine that. What a prick. What judge would want a late-term pregnant woman showing up for jury duty, let alone one with an underlying medical issue? That’s insane.
Thanks for the replies. Update: I was excused before it came to that.
I did consult an attorney and was advised that the judge, as a municipal employee, had sovereign immunity. So did the city that employed him. We did make our case to the City Council and they evaluated his behavior, but they elected to retain him as the municipal judge. His abhorrent behavior was drug through the front page of the newspaper for a couple of issues (of the paper). In the end, the council protected him and he is still the town judge.
Depends would have been your friend.
I thought colleges and other schools paid for unlimited jury duty. At least, that’s the way it’s been where I’ve taught, and where a friend works as a school clerk.
Oh my god, that is awful! I’m really sorry.
I also was called when I was pregnant. I called the number and said I might not be able to show up as the date of jury service was also my due date, and they said, “We’ll get you next year, enjoy your baby.” A phone call, I didn’t even have to show up. And a coworker likewise got one right after she’d had a baby, and she called to say that she would be bringing the baby, as she was breastfeeding, and where she went, the baby also went. They dismissed her, too. Over the phone. I don’t know if they would do that today, because now they have child care, but I think maybe for a baby younger than 10 weeks or so, they probably would.
The issue in our case is that the judge in question is a misogynist jerk. At the time, he ran his court as though it were his own little fiefdom. I actually complained to the mayor about the jury service the very next day, long before we knew how disastrous the consequences would be. My wife reported as ordered. She was clearly pregnant yet no one offered her a seat. She was made to stand for a few hours. The defendant was paraded before the jury pool. Being a small town, the jury pool members then gossiped about what they knew about the defendant before voir dire even began. The jury pool was dismissed when the defendant pleaded out. When my wife asked for a note for the employer, it was a handwritten note torn from a spiral notebook. The whole thing was a disgusting mess.
Had my wife called on the phone, it might have gone easier. But, since she visited the judge in his law office, he saw a very tired, vulnerable woman, and decided to treat her like crap. Because he could. He threatened a very pregnant woman with being thrown in a jail cell. A normal person doesn’t do that.
Courthouses provide child care?
They say it is, and they say it’s free. It’s something called Warm Welcomes. I don’tknow what you have to do to get it but I frankly would not leave a very small child there without checking it out.
I checked out the availability in California and it does not appear to be available in every County, including Los Angeles.