Getting out of jury duty

chris f

chris f

Veteran
So this morning I got a letter summoning me for jury duty on May 14. Although unwanted, this normally wouldn't be a problem except I already have a gig booked out of the country from May 8-16 and my client has already purchased the plane tickets, hotel, etc.

Is this a valid enough excuse to get out of jury duty?
 
Absolutely. You get a couple of postponements before they get serious. I don't think you even have to give a reason, you just call up and ask to reschedule.
 
Speaking of things to tell them (as Doc suggests)...
My roommate in college was never called to serve because on the form we would get, it would ask if you had ever been convicted of a felony. He would check the box and then erase the checkmark (so he wasn't really lying since he'd never been convicted of anything). But the latent checkmark seemed to work - he was never called.
Wait a second - I don't remember for sure if it was my roommate or if that was an urban legend floating around at the time. Oh well, I thought it was funny.
 
Just respond that you have work commitments, out of townness, whatever. They tend to be easy to work with.
 
Last edited:
Yes, it should be easy to reschedule. I dreaded being picked years ago but it turned out to be a very fascinating & worthwhile experience.
 
Had to do it for the first time a few months ago. First, I told them I lived half my time in TX, and the other half in my home state of Iowa.

They sent me a letter rescheduling for about 4 months later.

I forgot to go, then called the next day because I was worried. They rescheduled again for another 3 months out, but said it was pretty important to show up because "you don't want to upset the judge".

I finally just gave in and went. Showed up at 8am or so, waited around for 30 minutes, got sent to wait outside a courtroom with 10 others, 30 minutes later they came out and said a plea was reached and we could go home. Apparently 90% of the time a plea is reached...

I was in and out in under 3 hours.
 
ryan brown said:
I finally just gave in and went. Showed up at 8am or so, waited around for 30 minutes, got sent to wait outside a courtroom with 10 others, 30 minutes later they came out and said a plea was reached and we could go home. Apparently 90% of the time a plea is reached...
Click to expand...

They told me the same. The one with the weakest case (criminal or civil) hopes not enough folks even show up for the trial (meaning not enough for a detailed voir dire), but if there a good enough jury pool, they plead out.
 
I was called for a murder trial and had several big jobs going. I had no idea what to do. I went to my family doctor and friend he wrote a long note stating I was mentally unfit for jury duty. Problem solved :-))
 
And the best part is that you now have a mental-unfitness letter on hand for the next time it comes in handy, too.
 
I went to my family doctor and friend he wrote a long note stating I was mentally unfit for jury duty. Problem solved
Click to expand...

But now disqualified to own a weapon. Even in AZ.
 
Last edited:
Faking an attack of Tourette's works pretty well too. But you have to persuade them that you're undiagnosed, or they'll demand a doctor-letter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top