—
This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.
If you are an adult and a US citizen, you can probably expect to get a notification about serving jury eventually. You might get away with not doing it for years, but at some point, you will likely get an official-looking summons in the mail. You should ignore it at your peril.
Jury duty postponements can sometimes occur, but if you get a summons, you should probably just get it over with if you can. In this article, we will talk about what you and your family should know about this common civic duty.
The Basics
If you get a jury duty summons, that means your state wants you to enter a pool of potential jurors. If that summons comes, it does not automatically mean you will serve on a jury. In fact, of all the individuals who get that summons, only a small number actually become jurors.
Usually, there’s a phone number on the jury summons you’re supposed to call. You must do so on the day and at the time the piece of mail stipulates. When you call the number, you’ll get an automated message that will direct you regarding what you should do.
The message will tell you whether you’re excused or whether you must go to a court building where you will be part of the available jury member pool. Most times, you must go to the courthouse, where you will await further instructions.
What Comes Next?
You can tell your boss if you are working that you got a jury duty summons. Legally, they must let you off work.
Some employers might grumble about this. However, they must let you do it. If they forbid you from answering the jury summons, you can tell the authorities, and they will probably come down hard on your employer. The state government’s needs trump those of your boss.
Usually, you must show up at the courthouse bright and early. You might get there at eight o’clock. You will probably want to eat first or bring some breakfast and caffeine to wake you up.
You will receive instructions. Typically, you must wait in a room with the other potential jurors. In any decent-sized city, you might find yourself among as many as a couple of hundred people or at least a few dozen.
What Happens After That?
You must wait to see whether the judge who’s in charge of the cases on the docket at that moment will excuse you or whether you will become part of the smaller pool of potential jurors. Most people don’t like the idea of being on a jury very much. It can be a time-consuming and tedious process.
Occasionally, you might meet a person who wants to be on a jury. They may be curious about what it is like to be part of the justice system.
If the judge excuses you, or if one of the lawyers involved with the case does instead, you can get a letter saying you’ve fulfilled your duty, and you can go home. You should hold onto that letter since it guarantees you don’t have to do jury duty again for at least two years. In some states, that letter excuses you from jury duty for several more years than that.
Why Would a Lawyer or Judge Select or Not Select You?
If you become one of the much smaller groups of possible jurors who could potentially get an official selection, you will usually go from a much larger room into an actual courtroom. If you have never been in one before, it’s an interesting or even thrilling experience. You may feel like you’re in an episode of Law and Order: SVU or a similar police procedural show.
The judge will let you know a little information about the case. You might get a juror selection for either a civil case or a criminal one. The judge will also likely say you should not talk about the case with the other jurors, your friends, or your family members.
You will probably notice the defendant in the courtroom, as well as their lawyer and the opposing counsel. They might look at the potential jurors and ask that the judge excuse some of you.
They do this because they may feel that they want a certain demographic to make up the jury. For instance, a lawyer defending a very young accused criminal may want a jury that skews younger, thinking that individuals closer to that age might view the situation with more sympathy.
However, each lawyer can choose a certain number of jurors to keep things fair. If one lawyer or the other could pick the entire jury, that wouldn’t seem like a balanced and equitable system.
What Else Should You Know?
If you get an official selection, you must serve on the jury. Before you get to this final step, though, the judge might ask you whether you have any viewpoint that could lead to an unfair bias.
For instance, maybe the trial involves a police officer who shot someone during an alleged robbery attempt. If you say you have a bias against the police, that would probably disqualify you.
If the judge asks you whether you can remain impartial, and you say no, they will likely excuse you. If they find you don’t have a credible excuse, though, and you just don’t want to serve because you think it’s a hassle, you might still get an official selection.
You and your family should know that you can usually defer jury duty for a while if you absolutely must. In most cases, you can do it one or two times. If you have done it multiple times, though, you must eventually go through this process.
If you’re at all civic-minded, you probably won’t mind going through all of this. It might annoy you, but it may also interest you. You’re seeing the justice system in action up close.
—
