Jury Duty? Yea Right!

[Michelle]

How on earth am I suppose to do jury duty in January when it's like pulling teeth to get parents to pay me for my one week vacation a year at Christmas?

Also, this courthouse is in down town L.A. and I have a 9 year old that gets out of school at 3. They won't excuse me, they say only people with babies can be excused.


I am all for civil duty and all but there is no way I can afford to take a week off.
How do you guys deal with this?

[snips&snails]

Jury duty, I have no idea what I will do about that....

[Country Kids]

I just take the day off and go. I'm not in for having anything against my record for not showing up.

I was excused last time due to the type of case. I had a parent that had worked on it, one parent works for the courts and my own husband worked for the courts. There was no way they wanted me on the case!

[mom2many]

I have had jury duty several times in the past few years. They used to excuse daycare providers if you sent back the form and explained why it would be a financial hardship, but now only the judge can excuse you.

I had to sit one morning down at the court house for several hours and was able to get dismissed. The trial was expected to last 6 months and there was no way I could do that! Fortunately I had my husband as back up, so I didn't have to take time off.

This past November, I got another summons, but I never had to go in...just call 2 times a day & luckily my number came up!

[originalkat]

I was called to Jury duty recently. I called the number provided to me and they excused me as soon as I sent them a copy of my child care license.

[Blackcat31]

Here are some other threads about jury duty. https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=jury+duty

Perhaps one of them might have a suggestion or helpful hint.

[Mom&Provider]

I'm pretty sure as others have said you could get excused. Give them a call or maybe go in and see what they say...won't hurt!

[Unregistered]

This whole system is messed up. Rant ALERT!

It might depend on your state but I knew a lady who had a large family daycare and she was excused from jury duty because she owned a small business (even though she had like 3 regular assistance with at least 2 with her on the clock at all times)- plus I heard that you have to prove that you don't have regular child care to be exempt for jury duty with a small baby. So they think that forcing some one who is regular child care. I also heard that if you can prove that it can cause you a serious financial hardship (sometimes if you have a tight school scedule too).

Personally I think it is a joke, espesually in this economy, that they pull people out of jobs that may be hanging on by a thread or need to pay to feed their families; so that they can be paid only like $15 for the whole day (not including registering) when most parent's get paid by the hour (not salary). And the average person has a whole lot of judgmental beliefs and a lot more have no sense of right or wrong. I think they should reform the system to where college students studying administratoin of justice or any type of law have required hours in jury duty or just be done with jury duty because it makes no sense finanialy in this economy- I understand that most suspects have a right to be ruled by a jury of their peers but honestly most people in a jury are not in the same peer group as them they are usually between 20-70 that is a big age gap! how are they considered your peers if you are in your 30s? this system was created over 5 or 6 decades ago, everything else has changed why not this? and what is the point in paying a judge that has spent years studying law if they aren't going to have a say in the procedings? You might as well just outsource that job too since it's being taken over by people who have no prior knowlege of the depth of laws and don't understand how to examine evidence! If I went to court I rather know that a judge who understands all of the laws and evidence is going to decide my fate rather than some 18 year old guy named "Carl" who works at Micky D's or BK. And they wonder why so many young people don't register to vote! They don't want to be responsible for possibly sending the wrong person to jail or letting a maniac run loose on the street.

[Country Kids]

Its not picked just by your voter card, its also by drivers license number.

[Lyss]

I understand that most suspects have a right to be ruled by a jury of their peers but honestly most people in a jury are not in the same peer group as them they are usually between 20-70 that is a big age gap! how are they considered your peers if you are in your 30s? this system was created over 5 or 6 decades ago, everything else has changed why not this? and what is the point in paying a judge that has spent years studying law if they aren't going to have a say in the procedings? You might as well just outsource that job too since it's being taken over by people who have no prior knowlege of the depth of laws and don't understand how to examine evidence! If I went to court I rather know that a judge who understands all of the laws and evidence is going to decide my fate rather than some 18 year old guy named "Carl" who works at Micky D's or BK. And they wonder why so many young people don't register to vote! They don't want to be responsible for possibly sending the wrong person to jail or letting a maniac run loose on the street.

Sorry but there's so much misinformation there. but I agree the system does need to be updated

Jury of your peers does not mean they have to be your age group. In fact they want a varied age group to provide the most fair and well rounded results. Not values based solely on fads of one generation.

Also if you want a judge not a jury then that's what "bench trials" are...

Getting a drivers license is more likely to get you in the pool then voter registration, but it really depends on your state/county.


in regards to OP, I've gotten jury duty a few times. Thankfully I was able to "defer" a few times and have gotten out of it because of financial hardships it would can me and my families.

[MamaG]

Can you play religious card maybe? Claim you're a pacifist and won't find anyone guilty regardless.

[crazydaycarelady]

I have been called for Jury Duty multiple times but I always fill out the questionare and explain how it would inconvenience like 10 families and they always pull me off the list.

I WOULD like to serve someday though - I think it would be interesting.

[CrackerJacks]

I actually have a section in my handbook about jury duty. It says I may hav to close in case I am called to jury duty, this closure would be a Paid closure. I get called every year, and I've never actually had to close. In CA they let you postpone for up to 6mo I believe, so I end up postponing to a at that I know I am closed and the courts are open (Xmas holiday time, or spring break time or 4th of July time). Maybe you could try to postpone. The courthouse where I am at in CA also offers onsite Childcare for jurors should parents need it.

[nanglgrl]

I was called to jury duty about 5 years ago. I was pregnant at the time and my car had just stopped working. The grocery and Wal-Mart were within walking distance so it wasn't a big deal for us not to get the car fixed right away. My hubby needed his car for work. There were so many reasons I couldn't do jury duty. I was having a difficult pregnancy, had no transportation, had 2 children in my daycare that were in protective care (they needed to come to my house every day so I could report on how the parents were taking care of them and they couldn't just go to anyone) and of course I couldn't afford it nor did I have anyone that could watch my own children.
I filled out the forms, sent in the bus schedule showing there was no way it would work for the times I had to be there (we don't have much of a public transit system), sent in paperwork showing I did protective care and I sent a list of providers I had called asking if they could take temporarily take my children (I don't think I found one that said they would) and what it would cost me missing work and paying for childcare. None of it mattered, they didn't dismiss me. I called and told them if there was some way I could make it to the first day and be dismissed I would have to bring my children and was told it wasn't allowed so I just didn't show up. A few months later an officer showed up at my door with a warrant. It was scary but I went to what's called "pour hour" (you don't have to wait for a court date, you just go in on specified days and quickly argue your case) and pleaded to the judge. Everything was dropped but I had to pay the cost of serving the warrant. I wanted to scream, "If you had listened to me in the first place you wouldn't of had to serve it!"
I would like to serve some day but in this line of work it would be hard. Even though now one of my children is older so they could watch their younger siblings, I have a nice vehicle and parents that can and will find back up care if needed it would still be difficult being that we depend on my income.

[SunshineMama]

Can you play religious card maybe? Claim you're a pacifist and won't find anyone guilty regardless.

Genius happyface