Starting to Feel Frantic -- Jury Duty

When they are asking you questions, have VERY! strong opinions. Every lawyer I know excuses opinionated people.

I find this so sad.

I guess we should just leave government to the people that show up....the rest of us are too busy.

If you get selected as a potential juror, you will have the opportunity to raise your hand and say all of the above. Throw in that you have an anxiety issue and worrying the whole time won't help. That you might have to excuse your self to gather yourself and breathe a bit. No one is going to choose you if you're disruptive and not paying attention. Good luck! They used to excuse moms with kids under 16. Not any more!

both my husband & I were excused within the past year. My only concern is that you've waited until almost the very end. For both of us, we sent a letter listing our issues/concerns....allowing plenty of time for communication back/forth.

For my husband, he carries the load solo at work from 5:30am-8am, & again from 4-6pm. Because of this, he was excused for the days he worked....meaning he was on call for jury duty on Fridays only. In the 3 months he was on the call list, he was not called at all. We were so thankful the court worked with him!

In my case, I have an inhome daycare. I listed the issues for each family, provided their contact info, & asked to be excused. Again, the court worked with me & I was thankful. One day we both will serve. :)

As for working full time, your employer usually has a plan in place where you are paid for your jury service. Even if it is just that one day.

When the 'pooling' process starts, the judge will go over a few things. He/she will ask the pool some questions.
Does anyone know any of the lawyers, defendent, plantiff, court officers, etc.?
Has anyone heard of this case before?
Has anyone been following this case?
Does anyone have an interest in this case?
Does anyone have any family members in law enforcement?
Does anyone have any medical reasons why they cannot sit on the jury? Does anyone have any hardship reason why they cannot sit on the jury? Just raise your hand.

They will then ask you some questions. Explain that you are the main care giver for your elderly parent. If you are a single parent, you can mention your 11y, but your Mom may get you out of service, where your 11y may not because they will just say to just find a sitter for your child.

Undue "Hardship"! Stop the PANIC and start the logic (Truth)

Call the courthouse or your jury coordinator.

I just did jury duty here in Oregon. They want you to show up, or at least communicate so they don't end up with several trials and not enough able jurors able to serve on them!

It sounds like you may not be able to follow through if you were chosen. They don't want jurors who will start on the trial and get sick, poop out or not able to fulfill the entire trial time. This might result in their having to start the trial all over again. So, if you are one of those people who wouldn't be able to be there and mentally alert for the whole trial, be clear and honest about it. You are probably too much of a risk for them to use you.

Huh? Sad? Really? I'm sure that anyone in this positon would opt out. There's always next time.

You are someone's caretaker. I'm pretty sure you can give that as a reason to either postpone or be taken out of the pool. At least, that's how it is in my state. Your summons letter should give you some info on this. If it's not there, then your best bet is to call the phone # on the letter and get it handled that way. Not sure why you haven't done that, honestly, as policies are surely different in each city/state.

I have gotten summonsed at least 4 times and have never actually had to show up.

In CA, once you receive your summons, you have an opportunity (online) to indicate whether or not jury duty presents an undue hardship (financial, caregiver, etc.) on your or your family. Since this window may have already passed for you, this is something that you will bring to the court's attention when you go the first day.

Is anyone in your immediate or close family in law enforcement? In some cases, that disqualifies, I believe. If they have a phone number you can call to talk to someone, maybe they can answer the questions or tell you what documents you might need re. supporting not being chosen at this time.

You can often be reassigned to a closer courthouse. You also may not be called for anything - sometimes just showing up that day satisfies your obligation whether you are chosen or not. And if you are chosen, the judge usually asks for issues like the ones you cite. If you make it clear that you are not trying to get out of it, just trying to make it manageable, it's okay. I'm not sure how you already know which case you will be assigned to and where the courthouse is. That's nothing that is told to jurors ahead of time.

I found some info I pasted below that I hope is helpful.

From http://www.uscourts.gov/Common/FAQS.aspx#juror :

Q: What if the distance to the courthouse is too far or too difficult for me to travel?

The Jury Act allows courts to permanently excuse a juror from service at the time he or she is summoned on the grounds of "undue hardship or extreme inconvenience" if the distance to the courthouse makes it difficult for the juror to travel. The juror should write a letter to the chief judge of the court requesting an excuse with an explanation of hardship. As with temporary deferrals, whether to grant an excuse is a matter of discretion for the court and cannot be reviewed or appealed to Congress or any other entity. More on Jury Service

I don't know my e tell them your not partial to either side and opulent be able to decide.

Have you called them to explain your dilemma? I mean there's every possibility you'd be disqualified for some reason. But it might help to call and see if you can be dropped.

You could try the caretaker thing - not sure if that will work for you since you also work full-time.

They can only ask you to drive so far. I would let the court know that it's a 90 minute drive, roughly x miles and that since you will not be getting paid, it would be an extreme financial hardship to make that drive every day.

Write a letter stating that you are caring for an elderly parent and have underage children in the home, that you respectfully ask to be allowed to not do jury duty at this time. They will often just let you do it another time.

If you got on a federal case you'd likely be sequestered too. So caring for an "ailing" elderly person gets you lots of sympathy. You could also ask her doc for a letter stating that she needs your care on a daily basis.

I have one friend that got a jury summons each and every time there was a call for one. She just sent them a note that she was a nursing mother and would they provide a nursery for her child so she could feed them every few hours. She had 8 kids so this went on for nearly 18 years....lol. Once her kids were grown she did jury duty all the time.

i live in sterling heights.. got selected for federal jury duty downtown detroit.. I said i was a nursing mother and asked for a 4 month deferment. It was granted.. i only asked for 4 months.. because I was told if you ask for something unreasonable you will get nothing... in exactly 4 monhts.. i was once again called for jury duty... and i had to go.

I was selected for a trial.. that was 3 weeks long.. the judge asked if it would be a hradship.. i explained it was a hardshjip.. i was dismissed..
but the judge..did not release lots of folks that said it was a hardship..

good luck.. and find a sitter for your son..

I agree. There's a method for asking to not be on the jury at this time. Know, though, that if you get put back in the pot, it's likely you will be called up again faster than someone else. And that you might not get out of it, and may have to serve anyway - in which case I'd be calling in favors. For your mom, I'd start with the local adult "day care" facility and see if someone can come to your home (see who they recommend) and maybe ask friends or your son's friends to help with other logistics for his after school care.

My sister got out of it because it was during her maternity leave and she was caring for a premature newborn. They called her up a year later.

I have been called to jury duty twice, and both times could not make it. Once I was living 4 hours away at college, so I could not come back. The second time was this last fall right after I had major surgery. Driving was not an option for me, nor was sitting around a bunch of people who may have been sick when I was still vulnerable.

Do not feel bad if you can't do it. Yes, it is a responsibility we have as American's, but sometimes we just can't do it.

Call the court house and they should excuse you.

Contact them on the phone number provided on the Jury duty notice. Tell them you have no childcare and your care for an aging parent. They usually will excuse you if you tell them all of this in a factual matter. You may also want to get a doctors note from your mother's doctor. That usually carries more weight.