Jury Duty Emergency

AlyceInWonderland

So, I have jury duty on the 6th. Until the 7th I am literally the only person besides my boss at my job. I had to postpone jury duty last time I was summoned due to being in school and having finals.

I completely forgot about jury duty until right this minute and I absolutely can NOT miss work this week. It would put the company I work for in a really bad predicament, with lots of money lost.

I'll try calling tomorrow, but I doubt they'll be open on sunday?

That'll only leave the option of calling the day OF, and telling them that I have an emergency at work, and I absolutely can not make it in with out putting my job in jeopardy.

..what the hell do I do? I don't want to pay a fine or go to jail or whatever.

MrMonroe

they will absolutely not be open tomorrow, but it will help to call and see if your locality has an answering service that can take a message for you

then get up early monday and call the clerk and explain the situation again. Most jurisdictions will be perfectly fine with it; they overenroll jury pools for a reason.

dojango

Well, go to your county court's website and see what they say. My county wants requests to be made at least a week before service, and that's probably normal. But you could always call them first thing on Monday and plead for an emergency postponement.

However, most states have something like this law on the books:

Can I lose my job for reporting to jury service?
No. Under Oregon law, your employer may not discharge you because of jury service. An employer also may not threaten to discharge, intimidate or coerce an employee because of jury service. The court may take action against an employer who violates these laws.

So your company can't force you to ignore jury service. If its a small company that really really needs you, however, that might be a consideration to mention when pleading. You could also go down to the courthouse, and talk to them directly, maybe showing up for work late. But then, there is a chance that they might refuse (they're pretty reasonable, at least in my county.)

AlyceInWonderland

That makes me feel a lot better. I'm just worried that they're going to be like "NOPE. You've postponed once before, and it's the day of, you idiot!"

November Fifth

Assuming you are actually in New York State, you should've called their 1-800 number a week ago.

You need to go to this website. Find your county and call either the Jury Administrative Office or your Jury Assembly Room on Monday morning.

Dhalphir

can you contact your boss on a Sunday via a private number or something?

Giving him the headsup that you are very sorry, you've forgotten about the jury duty, you're going to call first thing monday and attempt to get an exemption.

he'll be a lot more reasonable about it the more time that he's had to sort something out. if you leave it until monday morning to tell him whats going on (assuming they do not permit you to postpone jury duty) he's going to have this dumped on him monday morning and i tell you what, monday morning is the worst fucking time to dump a giant problem on someone if you want them to be reasonable about it.

ahava

most places, if i remember, you get several deferrals. I got tons of them back when because they would also call me for jury duty when i was in a different state.

Worst thing that could happen is you go into selection and tell them that you cannot do it this week. It'll take maybe 40 minutes-hour out of your day.

but it's best to probably try and call first, to avoid having to go in at all.

oh, and tell your boss about what's happening.

Metallikat

AlyceInWonderland wrote: »

So, I have jury duty on the 6th. Until the 7th I am literally the only person besides my boss at my job. I had to postpone jury duty last time I was summoned due to being in school and having finals.

I completely forgot about jury duty until right this minute and I absolutely can NOT miss work this week. It would put the company I work for in a really bad predicament, with lots of money lost.

I'll try calling tomorrow, but I doubt they'll be open on sunday?

That'll only leave the option of calling the day OF, and telling them that I have an emergency at work, and I absolutely can not make it in with out putting my job in jeopardy.

..what the hell do I do? I don't want to pay a fine or go to jail or whatever.

While I had a somewhat similar situation (one guy off to Florida for two weeks, and if I went to jury duty it would leave just one other guy trying to cover our entire department), I had the good fortune to remember and call ahead a week or so in advance and get my jury duty postponed. All you can do is explain your situation and hope for the best.

I agree with checking out the juror website (the jury notices I've received come with a number and web address you can check out to tell you what's going on). Every time I've been summoned for jury duty, they always push the date back a few days, saying they don't need anyone for the current given date and to please check back the next evening, and eventually they say they don't require me to appear for jury duty and that I'm good for a few years.

AlyceInWonderland

So I checked the site out some more. I'm still going to try calling tomorrow, but the site said if there is an emergency and you can't make it to call a specific number. I'm going to explain my situation, and hopefully they'll understand.

The other problem is that my commute it 2 hours from upstate NY to NYC. So I can't just miss the train, go in and hope for the best. If I miss the train, I'll be HOURS late.

I guess I'll just hope for the best, but boy do I feel like an idiot.

Metallikat

I have to confess, I can't even imagine forgetting something like jury duty. The minute I get the jury slip in the mail, a small corner of my brain is carved out and reserved for the constant worry and fretting I go through to make sure I get everything right. I've been lucky in that so far, every potential jury duty I've had has ended up being settled out of court so I never have to show up.

T-bolt

lonelyahava wrote: »

Worst thing that could happen is you go into selection and tell them that you cannot do it this week. It'll take maybe 40 minutes-hour out of your day..

I was in a similar situation last week, and that's what I had to do. Was there in the court during the selection and had to explain my situation to the judge. Tried calling earlier but couldn't reach a person on the line. Ended up taking 3 hours out of my day, but got excused. Of course, I'm in a different country, but I doubt you'll get denied based on your situation.

Dhalphir

can't stress enough, call your boss _now_

or, if its night time now, call him as soon as its reasonably polite to call. even if annoyed with you for interrupting his sunday because you forgot jury duty, it'll be infinitely preferable to him finding out monday morning

Jasconius

Did you call to verify you have to show up?

In Florida, you can get a summons for jury duty and not actually have to show up.

They make you call in advance and you get an automated message telling you if you need to come.

I believe the reasoning behind this is that when they do these mailings, they intentionally mail more people than needed, planning that many will defer.

So... if it's the same in your state.. you may want to check? I don't know if you did that already.

fightinfilipino

AlyceInWonderland wrote: »

So I checked the site out some more. I'm still going to try calling tomorrow, but the site said if there is an emergency and you can't make it to call a specific number. I'm going to explain my situation, and hopefully they'll understand.

The other problem is that my commute it 2 hours from upstate NY to NYC. So I can't just miss the train, go in and hope for the best. If I miss the train, I'll be HOURS late.

I guess I'll just hope for the best, but boy do I feel like an idiot.

what the hell? you should have been able to get a change of venue to another court that's actually within reasonable commuting time of where you live. you may be able to ask the court that on Monday if you can just get assigned to something closer to you. courts generally don't make people travel farther than is necessary for jury duty.

Terra

When you do get a hold of someone in the court system, be prepared to give exact details of why you need another deferment. A vague work excuse might not be enough. I'd suggest having some notes ready with any info you think you might need and stress that you're happy to serve in the future.

You have to remember these people deal with BS excuses all the time and are rightfully wary. Every time I've had to defer, I had to give precise reasons to a very no-nonsense, skeptical type of person.

Drez

I'll just say that here in New York, I managed to postpone three times due to "emergency" of this kind. Essentially, I was temping, and I was covering my boss each and every damn time the postponement came up.

The official policy (again, here in New York) is, I believe, ONE postponement. They granted me two extra ones, but after the last one they made my juror ID #0001 to ensure I'd be called in the next batch (we get a number assigned to us here and you have to call each morning to see if you're summoned to appear at court).

When I finally did resign myself to go, I sat in a room for a few hours and they never called me in for anything. Then they dismissed me. And I'm good for 4 years (well, another 3 now).

Metallikat

If we don't hear from Alyce in the next few days, we must assume immediate deportation for failure to commit to patriotic duties.

ceres

That's what I'll be assuming.

Thanatos

Alyce, they seriously are not going to give a shit.

Call them tomorrow, let them know that it was a work emergency, and that you'll be happy to serve it at the next opportunity. Most people who don't show up don't even bother doing that, and they're generally happy to help you. Also, inform them of where you live, and ask if they can change your venue.

Don't sweat it. This is not a big deal.

AlyceInWonderland

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it. I've never had jury duty before, and last time when I was summoned I wrote it down on the calendar and was able to postpone it a week in advance.

I was just really worried because I can't afford to miss work this week (I'm basically running the place until we hire someone else on), and I most definitely can't afford a 1000 dollar fine.

The venue is really close to my house, it's work that's a 2 hour commute to get to. So, the venue is fine. I take the train though, and the later in the day it gets, the more spread out the train times are.

Thanks for reassuring me though. I feel much better, and I'll just call them on my way to work, because I have to be at my job by 9:30.

AlyceInWonderland

You guys were right. I called them this morning and they gave no fucks. Got it postponed until july.

Actuallt gonna write this shit on my calendar. This thread can be locked now

ceres

Glad it worked out!

And yet secretly disappointed your next post wasn't an urgent request for legal advice smuggled in from Gitmo over secret but unsecured bandwidth.

Look, physics lab is boring, okay?