Jury Duty vs Duty to Hospital

Nurses General Nursing

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I recently received a jury summons. Although my hospital will pay me for the days I will be fulfulling my civic duty, my nurse mgr. strongly encouraged me to write a financial hardship letter requesting to be excused. I am a 7p-7a nurse and have worked on the unit for over a year. I suggested that if it was a hardship on the department that perhaps she could write a letter to explain why my absence would create a hardship. It was suggested that people get out of this all the time and that it would be easier if I would write a letter. This is a large hospital with a large pool of nurses. I want to serve but fear possible repercussions. Does anyone have any experience with this issue?

Specializes in DOU.
The only way I wouldn't do it is if I were in school (meaning missing days from classes that can fail me and slow the process of graduation) or per diem work where I am, in fact, losing money to survive.

I'm not sure how it works elsewhere, but here in California, being a student - even a full-time student in a nursing program - is NOT grounds for dismissal from jury service. :specs:

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
I'm not sure how it works elsewhere, but here in California, being a student - even a full-time student in a nursing program - is NOT grounds for dismissal from jury service. :specs:

I'm not sure how it works, either, to be honest. However, I don't think I would be able to be an impartial juror with my personal life being on hold. The time I was in school would have been a very complicated situation because I was on contract with my job to complete the nursing program within a certain frame of time (was on leave with pay) or it would have been forfeited and I would have owed a great deal of money, would have had to change shifts and go to school on my own with financial debt I didn't prepare for. I was never called during that time, thank goodness, but I have to say I would have found a way out of it at that time.

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Specializes in icu, er, transplant, case management, ps.

I have been called to jury duty three times, once in NYS and twice in Florida. In NYS, the state was my employer, which should have gotten me dismissed but it did not. And it was a criminal case and he was found guilty. The two cases, in Florida, one was criminal and the other was civil. I was self employed and lost more then three thousand dollars in income because of my service.. But I did my service and lost the money. The second, I was not selected. I was dismissed when I responded that I read five newspapers a day. Unfortunately for the attorney who dismissed me, he never asked why? I read them for leads on potential employment for clients, I did vocational placements, among other things. My daughter was also dismissed when she informed them she read four newspapers a day.

We have a responsibility to do jury duty. And no employer has any right to put any pressure on an employee to avoid jury duty. One of the greatest things about our country is our court system.

Woody:twocents:

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Specializes in ICU/CCU.

I don't know what state you are from, but in NY you can pospone jury duty one time. They then ask you what month you are able to serve and trust me, that month you will get a notification to serve. This time they will not permit you to pospone jury duty again. Your manager should not be asking you to do this and I would not write a letter and lie! Do you civic duty and get it over with!:twocents:

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I'm in NJ and was excused from jury duty when I was a full-time student. I had to submit a copy of my course schedule to the courts and received a letter back that I had been excused.

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Quad lingual? Which ones?

As to Jury Duty: I once saw a judge require a woman to serve after her paid time from her employer ran out. She had to do JD for free! I thought that was pretty rotten, when a new juror could very easily have been obtained.

Probably a letter from a doctor is the best way to get out of JD, although serving can be interesting and it is our duty to do it once in a while. I wish I'd get called. I haven't been called for many years.

English, Spanish, Arabic and Farsi. I believe speaking multiple languages allows a nurse to be a better advocate for their patients. How can you advocate or care for someone when you don't understand their language or culture. Italian is next but that will merely be cosmetic as I never see Italians that don't speak English. At least in my area.

I have never had to serve in jury duty and so far I am glad. Of course my facility pays you for every day you have to serve after your vacation time runs out of course.

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I've been a registered voter since I was 18...suffice it to say that that's quite a while....yet I've never once been called to jury duty. My son just turned 18...just going into his Senior year in High School....and he's already received a questionaire to put him in the pool of jurors. He'll automatically be excused for a year, won't he? And he's also in Special Ed in school. I'm not sure if I should call the courts and explain the situation or if they'll just have to wait till they call him and let the lawyers decide if he could be a juror. Anyone know?

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Our court clerks are pretty nice. I was called to serve about 3 months ago and I was new to Hospice and had a patient who was about to die and I called to talk to the clerk about postponing. She was very nice and did postpone my service. Then when I was called again, I was sick with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea . . . she excused me that time and I went the next week. The first two groups off 50 were called and then our group was excused because the case was settled prior to the jury being called. So I went home about 11:30.

I won't get called for at least a year.

They use DMV records too - not just voting records. So, it doesn't do any good not to register to vote.

steph

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Specializes in Med surg, Critical Care, LTC.

I would do my civic duty and report. You may not get picked for the jury anyway.

Your manager cannot do anything about your jury summons. You are legally bound to reply, and she knows that.

You, ultimately, must do what you feel is right. I recently got called for jury duty, brought the summons to my boss she said "Great, your the third person from this department with a jury summons" - she sighed and walked away with obvious disgust. That's her problem.

I went, spent two days sitting there, when they found out I was a nurse, I was excused. My duty was done, and I was back to work in no time.

Good luck

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If you tell them you're a racist they will let you go.

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Specializes in icu, er, transplant, case management, ps.
I don't know what state you are from, but in NY you can pospone jury duty one time. They then ask you what month you are able to serve and trust me, that month you will get a notification to serve. This time they will not permit you to pospone jury duty again. Your manager should not be asking you to do this and I would not write a letter and lie! Do you civic duty and get it over with!:twocents:

I was living in NYC when I was called. And I didn't try to postpone my jury duty. For one thing, I didn't think I would be allowed to sit on a jury, working for the state. And two, it was my responsibility and duty to report and serve if chosen. And to be honest, I do not care for employers or employees who try to get someone out of duty. They both want the rights of this country but they sure have a problem with serving their responsibilities. My daughter talked about attempting to get out of jury duty. I told her if she wanted to live here, she had better just report.

In 2001 I got a notice, from Florida, requesting I report for jury duty. I returned the form, telling them I was living in upstate New York. I got another letter that told me living in New York for six months out of the year did not excuse me. I called the Clerk of the Court and gave her an ear full.

Woody:twocents:

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Specializes in OB.

A thought for all of you who dodge jury duty "because my unit (or my patients) needs me". Realize that if you fell down and broke your leg on your way to work they would not close down the unit until you had recovered. None of us are personally and individually indispensible to the workplace. This is what agency nurses are for.

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