PLEASE tell me you've done this before and I'm not going to be arrested! I got the summons almost 2 months ago for jury duty this past Thursday. I put it on the front counter this week so I wouldn't forget to call the night before, but...silly me! I COMPLETELY forgot about it!
I called when I got it to see if I could postpone it because I'm a teacher, but the lady on the phone recommended that I wait to see if my group was even called. She said I might be dismissed anyway because Thursdays are less busy. If my group was called, then I could postpone it. But now that I've gone and forgotten to even call, I have no idea if I was even supposed to be there! Has this ever happened to anyone else? Should I call to admit it or just wait and hope my group was dismissed anyway? Is there a huge penalty for not showing up??
I would call right away Monday and be totally honest. In some localities, failure to "check in" is grounds for there to be a warrant out for your arrest. Good luck!
I think it varies from state to state. Call your courthouse and explain the situation. I'm sure they will be understanding, especially if you tell them that you will serve at anytime they need you. Call on Tuesday, tomorrow is a federal holiday.
I would call, too, just in case. You don't want to find out the hard way that you are in trouble for it, and you don't want to have to have the worry hanging over your head. Hopefully your group wasn't even called. Let us know what happens. Or if you need us to come visit you in the slammer. (J/k - I am sure this happens quite a bit. It's out of the ordinary and I'm sure you are not the only one who totally missed making the call).
I had one of the jury notices where you call at 11:30 a.m. to see if they need you by listening to a recording. If not, you don't have to go. I have only heard of one person ever being told they had to come in. The last one of this type I forgot all about it until 3 weeks later. I worried just like you. I wondered if I should call and explain and then decided not to. That was 2 years ago. I have never heard anything about it. I figured they didn't need me. Hope it never comes back to haunt me.
they'll usually reassign you to another date.. or they'll just tell you ok, and add you back to the "lottery of winners" who get called. I've only once ever gotten called for jury duty.. and it was the last week of school.. I called and asked if I could do it in the summer since it was the last week of school and I had "end of year duties" to get done... they removed me from the list and said they'd just add my name back into the computer for another time... I've never gotten called again.
My friend in another county, always calls if it's during school and they reassign her to a date in June...
Guess it just varies from county to county, state to state...
One week so many people failed to show up for jury duty that the judge issued warrents for everyone failing to reply or show up. Then he sent deputies out to get enough people to have a pool to pick jurors for that week's cases. I can't remember the details now. Not sure if they pulled from the next list and sent them out to get those people or just pulled random people in off the streets. But I do know he issued warrents for those not showing up.
call and let them know you forgot. whenever I have jury duty (all the time it seems) I usually don't have to report. In my BIL's city, however, he had to call every night and not only did he have to report every day, he kept getting picked for the jury. (He did two murder trials last month!)
Now, my sister blew off the notice and got a visit from a deputy in the sheriff's office! not good.
02-15-2009, 04:22 PM
