Failure to Respond to Jury Summons

Nurses General Nursing

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I just got the "Failure to Respond to Jury Summons" letter. I was in school for nursing at the time I got the letter for jury duty and didn't go. I didn't even have the TIME to go. But I don't think they'll understand that I had two days of clinical, one full day of lecture and one day of lab each week; and that missing even one day could result in me being behind on material that I needed to know... anyway, has anyone experienced this while in college for nursing?

I felt the same way, but thought maybe I was just being too sensitive. Glad I'm not the only one.

My daughter tried to get a post-ponement due to crushing work schedule and conflicts with her childcare arrangements. She was told that there was no post-ponement for work related issues and if she could drop off her kids at daycare to go to work she could drop them off and go to the court house. However, she happened to mention that her youngest was still breast feeding and they told her she should have mentioned that up front. Apparently breastfeeding is an automatic postponement due to fact that don't have facilities for a nursing mom to use a pump. She is such a trooper she was going to carry her pump ad other equipment with her if she couldn't get out of it. I am proud of her, I don't know how she does it. She has a full time job as an IT executive. Everyday she drops those kids off at 7am, always she has her breast pump and other equipment with her. She deals with tantrums, teething, routine doctor visits as well illnessess all the while dealing with her work related stuff. She is lucky in that she has a hubby that pulls his own weight and I would say they split the work 50-50. But he can't breast feed for her can he. I am sure all working mom's know what it is like, I sure do admire them. I never did it. I took a couple years off from work when my kids were little.

I just served and the funny thing is there were 4 RN's in the court room and all 4 of us got picked even though I was friends with a prosecuting attorney who works for the city. There was a med student and a college student and they told the judge that they were in school and they did not get picked. They have a section on the summons for you respond if you feel that you can not serve but you just can't ignore it. Just because some people don't get fined or issued a warrant doesn't mean that you will be that lucky. One lady did not come back the next day and she was issued a warrant and the sad thing is the case was dismissed an hour after roll call and we all got to go home.

Oh and no one really wants to serve on jury duty even the judge said that and the people in the holding room but it is something we have to do. Believe me there was a lot of moaning and groaning from everyone there myself included. I work nights and to have to be in court at 8 in the morning was torture for me. Get it over with it isn't as bad as you think. You may have gotten excused since you are in school. Call them 1st thing Monday and explain your situation.

They have a section on the summons for you respond if you feel that you can not serve but you just can't ignore it. Just because some people don't get fined or issued a warrant doesn't mean that you will be that lucky.
One of the problems in my county (I don't know what goes on elsewhere) is that the time between the the filling out of a survey and the arrival the actual summons is one and a half to two years. People's circumstances change so much in two years time. Just because I did not check the box that says I have a disablity today does not mean I won't have one two years from now. Several years ago the county officials decided they were going to arrest all the people that ignored their jury summons. So they sent out sheriffs with warrents to arrest hundreds of people who had not shown up in the last few month. They issued around 100 warrents and actually arrested about 12 people. More half of the people they went after did not live in the area, many more had moved so many times that the summons did not get to them. Others they found in nursing homes or grave yards. Many had heart attacks and strokes that made it difficult for them to manage their affairs to the point where they were not even able to respond to the summons. Later in the newspaper they said the whole thing was a huge expensive fiasco. They pointed out that what they really needed to do was get those summons out in about 3 to 6 months after the original survey was sent out. They did that for a while and the problems with the no shows just about went away. Now I hear they are back sliding and the time between you sending in your survey and the actually scheduling of your jury duty is getting longer and the no show list is getting longer also.
Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

Speaking as some one that gets a summons like clock work every six months, and yes many times during nursing school (literally I got a summons for the day before my NCLEX!!)...nursing school is not an excuse. You still have to fill out the form and mail it in or call. I always got out of it temporarily by filling out "temporary financial hardship", writing out my nursing school schedule (which was obviously not even conducive with being on a jury) and putting the date I was available; which was during school breaks, and I did have to go once but they selected their jury before they got to me. You do have to be available too, if you ask for an extension too many times they will make you appear. Most times I got lucky during my school breaks and the cases were canceled. Getting out of it when it was schedule for during my NCLEX, I simply called the court house and explained that I was taking my nursing boards the next day. She totally understood and pushed me out a few months.

Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.

Here you get automatically excused if you can prove that your youngest child is younger than 4... even if you are not a full time SAHM.

Here in Ohio, the actual penalties for failing to report for jury duty vary by county and even by judge (as opposed to the written law). In Wayne County, they would probably just ignore you (perhaps because so many of us take our civic duties seriously that there is no shortage of jurors reporting for duty).

On the other hand, I know of a person in an adjacent county who was charged with contempt of court. He told them that he might have to leave the country during the time he was eligible for duty. Unfortunately for him, he was called for duty when he was out of the country. The fact that he had told them in advance made no difference to the court.

Maybe he was able to have this charge removed from his "permanent record" by serving at a later date. I do not know.

As far as breastfeeding, at one trial the judge dismissed a juror for that reason. At another trial, a different judge did not like to excuse anyone for any reason.

When I was on county grand jury this year, all 9 of us had perfect attendance for the 4 Friday sessions. I guess this was unusual. It made for short days, since nobody had to be brought in as a substitute and brought up to speed.

Perhaps its just me, but I think Jury Duty is a waste of time. I am not interested in the least in the justice system and I don't feel as though US citizens should be required to complete there "Civic Duty".

Speaking on Jury duty - I have it on Monday...and I did not inform my boss!

We aren't summoned to jury duty to give us the wonderful interesting opportunity to participate in the justice system. It's not about us. It's about providing a fair trial to our peers. As others have already brought up: if we don't serve, who should? I'm not interested in certain parts of my job as a nurse, but I perform to the best of my ability anyway because my patients deserve it.

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