I've been summoned for jury duty (again).  Kinda ridiculous because I live in the second most populated county in the U.S. and apparently they can't find enough people to go more than a year and a half between summons.  Here's the problem:

 

•  The place is extremely inconvenient for me to get to.  I can't drive, so I have to take the train downtown and then get on a bus that I've never been on before on a route in an unfamiliar and really crummy neighborhood.  The whole trip would take an hour and a half.
•  It's a grand jury summon, so there's a good chance I'll be exposed to something I won't be able to handle.

Totally not worth the $18 or so they pay you.

 

So, I'm going to try to get out of it.  That leaves me 2 options:

 

•  First, I could get a medical excuse.  This would require me to go to the courthouse to present the doctor's note, and if they let me go, I won't have to come back.  However, I could not be excused.
• Or, I could just not show up and pay a fine of up to $100.  A small price to pay to keep my sanity intact.  But I wonder if there are consequences they aren't telling me.

Right now I'm leaning toward the fine, but I'd thought I'd ask you first.  I don't have to decide until June, so I have plenty of time.  What do you think I should do?

Just tell them you don't have reliable transportation.

I've been summoned for jury duty (again).  Kinda ridiculous because I live in the second most populated county in the U.S. and apparently they can't find enough people to go more than a year and a half between summons.  Here's the problem:

 

[*] The place is extremely inconvenient for me to get to.  I can't drive, so I have to take the train downtown and then get on a bus that I've never been on before on a route in an unfamiliar and really crummy neighborhood.  The whole trip would take an hour and a half.

[*] It's a grand jury summon, so there's a good chance I'll be exposed to something I won't be able to handle.

Totally not worth the $18 or so they pay you.

 

So, I'm going to try to get out of it.  That leaves me 2 options:

 

[*] First, I could get a medical excuse.  This would require me to go to the courthouse to present the doctor's note, and if they let me go, I won't have to come back.  However, I could not be excused.

[*]Or, I could just not show up and pay a fine of up to $100.  A small price to pay to keep my sanity intact.  But I wonder if there are consequences they aren't telling me.

Right now I'm leaning toward the fine, but I'd thought I'd ask you first.  I don't have to decide until June, so I have plenty of time.  What do you think I should do?

They shouldn't be able to summon you again, the standard as I recall is thst you can only serve once every three years, unless you didn't serve last time.

 

ALSO:

You must show up. If you do not, you will likely be taken to prison and confined for a day or so, then forced to go plus you have to pay a fine. At least that how it is here in Las Vegas, I can't imagine it would be too diffrent out there either. 

Edited May 7, 201510 yr by Guest
double post

Do NOT bail out. You're legally required to show up so you'll get more than just a fine if you blow them off. Just do what everyone else does when they wanna get out of jury duty. Your options are to:

 

-Tell them the truth that you might not be emotionally capable of handing it, and that you don't have reliable transportation. They might cut you some slack, but it's just as likely they'll tell you to deal with it.

-Act like you're so incompetent that no one in their right mind would put you on a jury (er, but don't be so incompetent that they can tell you're BSing).

-Follow your honest morals and watch them say, nope that's not what we wanna hear, have a nice day. That's what my dad did once, no BS required.

Jury Duty... one of the many things I loathe to experience when I become an adult. Still have a good few years, but yikes

Do NOT bail out. You're legally required to show up so you'll get more than just a fine if you blow them off. Just do what everyone else does when they wanna get out of jury duty. Your options are to: -Tell them the truth that you might not be emotionally capable of handing it, and that you don't have reliable transportation. They might cut you some slack, but it's just as likely they'll tell you to deal with it.-Act like you're so incompetent that no one in their right mind would put you on a jury (er, but don't be so incompetent that they can tell you're BSing).-Follow your honest morals and watch them say, nope that's not what we wanna hear, have a nice day. That's what my dad did once, no BS required.

You could also say that you are unable to handle stressful situations very well, and this would affect your ability to make a decision without having bias as your emotions would get in the way.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about bailing out of jury duty, but I do believe it would be a bit heftier than a fine if you were to simply not show up, as sad as that is.  I would try explaining that you do not have reliable transportation and see what they say.  Be careful on which excuse you decide to use, however.  If they see you making too many excuses they might get suspicious and think you just don't want to get into it.

Jury Duty is indeed a requirement as a citizen of the US. You have an option to also tell them you don't make a lot financially and that is considered a proper excuse if you're financially low (they do check however, so make sure this is the case).

They shouldn't be able to summon you again, the standard as I recall is thst you can only serve once every three years, unless you didn't serve last time.

 

ALSO:

You must show up. If you do not, you will likely be taken to prison and confined for a day or so, then forced to go plus you have to pay a fine. At least that how it is here in Las Vegas, I can't imagine it would be too diffrent out there either. 

 

Well I looked it up and the period is 12 months.  Also what I got from other people in my county is that I probably won't get arrested and some people have even said the date would be moved and they wouldn't really care.  The letter I got only mentioned a fine that could be as little as $5.