The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
I forgot to go to Jury Duty (worst reason to go to jail ever)
Food
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So about 2 weeks ago I got a message that I was to appear in court for jury duty. I was pissed off for a second, but then proceeded to completely forget about it.
So today I was making breakfast and I noticed the envelope sitting on the kitchen counter. "Oh yeah!" I thought, "I have jury duty! I sure hope I didn't miss that!" And like some bad movie scene, I take a look at the letter and realize I was required to be there at 8:30 this very morning.
Now I've been told I could be facing up to 30 days in jail. That seems extremely dubious, but I'm still worried. If I went to jail for missing jury duty I'd have to beat someone up on my first day to get any respect whatsoever. Should I expect any trouble? I live in connecticut.
So today I was making breakfast and I noticed the envelope sitting on the kitchen counter. "Oh yeah!" I thought, "I have jury duty! I sure hope I didn't miss that!" And like some bad movie scene, I take a look at the letter and realize I was required to be there at 8:30 this very morning.
Now I've been told I could be facing up to 30 days in jail. That seems extremely dubious, but I'm still worried. If I went to jail for missing jury duty I'd have to beat someone up on my first day to get any respect whatsoever. Should I expect any trouble? I live in connecticut.
Food on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
The worst thing you can do is simply ignore the note and hope it goes away on its own. Judges have little patience for people to skip jury duty, and while 30 days seems like the strict maximum for repeat offenders, you could be facing a fine or a nice weekend in lockup, not to mention that you would still have to serve jury duty. In PA, it's not uncommon for Judges to periodically send the Sheriff around to pick-up people playing hooky from jury duty and scare the hell out of them.
Don't drop the Soap :P
When I had Jury Duty, the Judge issued warrants right then and there for anyone who was supposed to be there but wasn't.
That said, he was a cool guy, and if you screwed up like the OP and actually showed up to explain, he probably would have worked it out with him.
GL man, tell us how it goes.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Skipping it is a bad idea, because the next time you get pulled over and they run your ID, you get hauled in for a "failure to appear." Ask Elki about that, sometime. :P
Oh... and he worked for the Sheriff's department. Apparently, some places just don't give a fuck.
This is not advice, I'm just saying that some places are much more strict about it then others are. But, it's always the law.
If you've got proof you were on duty with the guard, the only thing you even did wrong was not telling them. :P
Don't worry about it too much. It seems crazy to jail you for that.
5% of the time, you end up in front of a judge who cares, with a bench warrant out for a "failure to appear." Not wanting to go to jury duty isn't really worth the chance of spending a weekend in jail.
That's probably not really a legitimate excuse. Most cases only last a few days so it'd hardly effect your semester and it's not like people don't have to take time off of work to attend.
That's what sucks about jury duty though, it's completely up to the courts discretion... still, civic responsibility and all that.
Yeah, as far as I know, students are basically always exempt unless they want to serve. It's not really up to the court, it's written into the law in many states. In CA, your jury duty can be deferred for up to a year if you're breastfeeding, or if you're taking care of someone who wouldn't be able to survive without you (aka small child or aged relative) and you don't have another job.
Anybody employed by the police dept. in some fashion usually aren't allowed to serve anyway.
However, yes, you generally have to. You may have luck calling them and explaining the situation. It never hurts to call. Just explain that it's out of your way and your disability makes it difficult to do so, but you have no problem providing the proof of such.
Most often they will exempt you over the phone.
Necro posting is posting in threads which are very old and have not had any new posts in them for a very long time - in this case, five entire years - thus "bringing them back from the dead" like a necromancer.