Deferral, yes.
Excused, no.
Serving on a jury is a duty of being a member of our civilized society and not to be taken lightly. Our justice system may not be perfect, but it’s the best system in the world.
Heck, no, although I could see giving a deferral until summer or winter break.
This works for some jobs, but not all. I work for a large organization, but I’m one of only two people in an office that does fairly specialized work. If I’m out of the office, we don’t hire a temp for that period, since the temp wouldn’t have a clue what to do.
Absolutely. Jury duty may be inconvenient, but it’s the price we all pay for being able to have a jury of our peers.
I got a jury duty notice one when I was still in high school. (I was 18 for basically all of my senior year.) I sent it back with a statement to that effect and never heard back. Not even a deferral. Haven’t gotten one since.
In Harris County (Houston) you can defer jury duty online. I’ve done it when the timing was inconvenient, work-wise.
Mostly, I just show up at the courthouse, then go home when they’ve got the jury panels for the day. I’ve only been selected once–for a civil case that lasted one day. Another time, I got put in a jury panel–but the guy made a deal while we were waiting outside the courtroom.
Surely, the smart college kids can spare a day or two.
My co-worker was excused from jury duty, twice, because of exams (Canada).
I was called for jury duty this past year, but I was a full-time student with almost a full-time job without a car in a very mass transit-unfriendly place.
So I told 'em. It was deferred until this July, which is almost over – and they haven’t tried to reach me again. I suppose it’s just as well, since I’m closing on my house on the third of August and moving six hours away.
Should I have been given this deferment? As far as I’m concerned, yeah; losing my part-time (technically temporary) employment would have meant less money for food, mortgage, electricity. Missing enough lectures in my course of study would have meant terrible confusion for the rest of the semester, at best.
I don’t feel terribly bad about it.
Edit: I should note that the amount they were going to pay left a sour taste in my mouth, adding to my inability to feel bad for missing it. It wouldn’t have covered bus fare and lunch. Literally.
You can, but let me warn you: the system is woefully unprepared for someone who goes to school in one part of the state and lives in another part of the state while on break. I had to write several letters and make many phone calls, sometimes to people who threatened me with criminal charges, because they couldn’t seem to understand that it just wasn’t feasible for me to drive 500 miles across the state in the middle of spring break to serve my jury duty.
I did finally “serve” back home, while on break. They sat me on a jury for a trial that was supposed to last 4 months. I got excused, and that was it. I get the summons every year, but I’ve not yet had to actually go in again.
Only a student could possibly think that students work hard!
Absolutely no excuse at all.
But I agree with the post about drinking age, but then again that’s not so much of a problem here (although twenty one is starting to come in drips and drabs here, very stupid - the more you treat teenagers like teenagers, the more they will be teenagers and things will be worse for everyone else. We’ve had twenty four year old prime ministers in the past FFS… Sometimes I think we should stop education between 14 and 16 and put everyone in a job for a couple of years, then aged 16 they can decide what they want to do, will be a much better system. I’ll start a great debates thread about this in the next week or so. My, this has turned into a bit of a rant, sorry!)
Were you a British Leyland shop steward? 
I agree with you, FWIW, but the way that this was put…
:dubious:
My full intention was to actually stay out of this thread a bit and just read folk’s opinions on the question, but I have to say something about this gem.
Did you go to college? Did you have to work full time while doing so? Sure, in a year or two I’ll be a full fledged grown up, working full time and paying my bills, but as of right now, I work tons (30 hours a week during school, 45 while school is out), pay my bills, AND go to school full time.
Maybe you didn’t work hard while in school (if you went), but I assure you that for some of us it’s not uncommon to not be able to sleep more than 5 hours a night, due to working our butts of to get by. I assure you that balancing everything I have to do is just as hard as owning a mini-market that’s attached to my home.
Well, that’s what I said. I’ve been a full-time student for the past seven years. It sounds like most jurisdictions make it possible to defer one’s time for duty. But students should not be exempt, no.
Have you done that, too?
Diosa, you need to talk to your professors to make some sort of arrangement about lecture notes and such. Unless there’s a can’t-miss exam scheduled for that week, there is no excuse not to serve. I also find it hard to believe that your professors won’t make some accommodations for that.
In fact, when I got called for jury duty last year, I talked to one of my professors, who agreed to let me discuss my experiences as a juror, the kind of case I sat on, and so forth. His rationale was that the overall experience and civic responsibility of sitting on a jury outweighs missing classes.
Robin
I think some of you are mistaken that this is some sort of quandary that I’m presently facing. That’s not the case. I’ve been called every year of college (and my senior year of high school) and each time I have reschedule for summer (but never been needed). I was just citing some experience in the OP, then asking a general poll.
Though I do appreciate the advice :). It’s all stuff I’ve done every time I’ve been called, but maybe it will help someone who doesn’t really know and is in the same situation.
I’m with you. I worked incredibly hard in college, though most of my peers just played hard. I was working nights at a 24-hour diner and sleeping between classes. While a career and more traditional adult responsibilities aren’t easy, it has definitely been less stressful than college usually was.
As far as if a fulltime student should be an excuse, I don’t disagree that everyone is obligated to do their duty, whether they are a student or an employee, but I have two things I’m considering. One is that many students go to school very far from where their legal residence is. It is unfair to ask someone to travel to Wisconsin if they go to school in New York, both practically and financially. And the other thing is that while you are getting paid to be an employee, you are spending money to go to school. While many trials are only a couple of days, some are for weeks. I would be very upset to be spending money on an education that I couldn’t be taking advantage of. All of that said, most students I know who were called got a deferral.
Forty five hours is tons*?
No, dear, it isn’t. A typical day for me in the shop beings at five thirty AM, out at around the same PM, and no lunch break.
Previously I worked much longer hours. But when I was a student, I did fuck all. In fact, we weren’t even allowed to work.
It felt like a lot at the time though.
*Maybe I should say “tonnes” now, what with metrication and all that.
I think college students should be allowed to defer until break. I was once called and actually made it into the jury box for a weeks-long trial while taking hard upper division courses that were only offered once every two years. I explained the situation to the judge, and both attorneys simultaneously excused me.
I agree with the person who mentioned that you are paying to go to college. I’ve seen people excused because they had nonrefundable plane tickets, how is college different form that?
Hard to do that for labs, or for classes where class discussion is important. But I agree with those who say students should be deferred, not excused.
I never got called in NJ, but here - well, if I were as popular with women before I got married as I seem to be with judges and lawyers, I would have had a hell of a good time. 
People get called as students and have to serve in the middle of the semester? I’ve never heard of that before. Absolutely had to show up to fill out the juror’s eligibility form or whatever the heck that was called, but as soon as I said I was a full time grad student I was told I’d be deferred until after I graduated - more than 3 years in the future!
Do you mean, you were called for duty where you were going to school? Can I ask how that situation should even come up? I thought one was only allowed to serve in their place of legal residence, in which case your address at school shouldn’t count. 
Heck, a few years back I changed residences, which were not very far apart but did involve crossing county lines. Not long after I got called for jury duty in my former county of residence, and I was having a hard time coming to an agreement with a woman at the county courthouse over what would be acceptable evidence of my new address (since none of the utilities were in my name). Out of exasperation I told her fine, I’ll come serve, I’ve never served on a jury before and I wouldn’t mind… and then she got all huffy and said if I wasn’t a resident any more, my serving would be illegal.
Meant to add, I was once called for jury duty in federal court while I was out of the country for three months. My dad wrote back to tell them I was away, and I never heard from them again…