Jury duty and new grad program

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Hi all! I'm looking for some suggestions as to what I can write to try to get excused from jury duty. Before anyone reminds me of my important civic duty, I want to explain that the reason I'm trying to avoid jury duty is because I just got accepted into a new grad program that requires 3 months of training and I was lucky to get in, being that there were only 5 of us hired. I understand my job can't penalize me for jury duty, this was really just terrible timing. I was thinking of explaining the new grad thing to them, but I'm also thinking I may just ask for a postponement. If I try to get excused and get denied, will I be able to postpone? Again, I'm not trying to flake out on my civic duty, this just isn't a good time for me.

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I suppose it depends on your state, but I think if you are called you have to go. I've been called twice and sat on a jury once. Both times it only took one day.

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

Contact the county clerk whose name is on your summons, explain the short term problem and ask if you can be moved to a future cohort. If not, show the letter to your employer, it is illegal to retaliate against someone who is summoned (the clerk can get the judge involved).

I have been summoned more times than I can count, federal, state and municipal. Been seated on 2 murder trial juries; they can take a while! If you do have to go, often it takes just the morning, and you can get to work in the afternoon. For the last few, all I had to do was check the website to see if my group even had to show up the next week, for 9 weeks. Only had to go in twice, my panel didn't get selected often. They put a whole lot of people in groups, and only summon one or two groups at a time, depending on what trials are scheduled for the week, if one group gets called in then they have another group available to call for the next.

Nurses don't get exempted anymore, pretty much the only exemptions these days are active military or police.

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I suppose it depends on your state, but I think if you are called you have to go. I've been called twice and sat on a jury once. Both times it only took one day.

Thanks for your reply. I think I'll try to postpone for now, just in case they deny the excuse request. I'll have to figure this all out, this is the second time I've been called for jury duty, but the first time I had a valid excuse that they approved.

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Contact the county clerk whose name is on your summons, explain the short term problem and ask if you can be moved to a future cohort. If not, show the letter to your employer, it is illegal to retaliate against someone who is summoned (the clerk can get the judge involved).

I have been summoned more times than I can count, federal, state and municipal. Been seated on 2 murder trial juries; they can take a while! If you do have to go, often it takes just the morning, and you can get to work in the afternoon. For the last few, all I had to do was check the website to see if my group even had to show up the next week, for 9 weeks. Only had to go in twice, my panel didn't get selected often. They put a whole lot of people in groups, and only summon one or two groups at a time, depending on what trials are scheduled for the week, if one group gets called in then they have another group available to call for the next.

Nurses don't get exempted anymore, pretty much the only exemptions these days are active military or police.

Darn, I really wish they excused nurses if they wanted to be excused! There are a million other people who would love to serve on a jury, even lots of nurses who enjoy/don't mind it..just not me :)

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

No not really, the majority of my groups were all looking for ways to get out of it. One way was to be obnoxious during the questioning.

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Darn, I really wish they excused nurses if they wanted to be excused! There are a million other people who would love to serve on a jury, even lots of nurses who enjoy/don't mind it..just not me :)[/quote

My area doesn't even excuse defense lawyers. I have a friend they has been called three times. He always has to go and then the prosecutor always eliminates him. Go figure. ;)

Oddly enough my cop relative always gets eliminated too. Something about being biased.

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Yup, I hear cops are excused..lucky!

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When I was called for jury duty I just told the judge I was a nurse and my job had no replacement for me. I was excused on my work days but, had go if called on my days off. I never got called to serve.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

I can't speak for all states, but in California, you can request to reschedule once with no questions asked to why. But then you have to show up on that second date...and even then, you can show up within two weeks of that date if it will make things easier for you. See if your state allows you to request a reschedule/postponement. If they don't or require an explanation as to why you want to postpone, then tell them you're starting a job and can't take the time off.

I got out of duty last year via the financial hardship card: my employer would have paid my base rate for time served on jury duty, but I would have lost all of my differentials. I would have made about $15/hr or so less on jury duty than if I showed up to work. They accepted the explanation, and I was and out of the courthouse in 10 minutes.

Not that I didn't want to be a juror--I never have and it would have been interesting if I was chosen. But right now I can't afford to be one.

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Specializes in Med Surg/ICU/Psych/Emergency/CEN/retired.
Hi all! I'm looking for some suggestions as to what I can write to try to get excused from jury duty. Before anyone reminds me of my important civic duty, I want to explain that the reason I'm trying to avoid jury duty is because I just got accepted into a new grad program that requires 3 months of training and I was lucky to get in, being that there were only 5 of us hired. I understand my job can't penalize me for jury duty, this was really just terrible timing. I was thinking of explaining the new grad thing to them, but I'm also thinking I may just ask for a postponement. If I try to get excused and get denied, will I be able to postpone? Again, I'm not trying to flake out on my civic duty, this just isn't a good time for me.

I am in California. I was told that here you can defer twice but must show up the third time. I did recently serve (last September) but ended up not getting on the jury because the pool was filled before my number came up. I did listen to all the questions asked of the prospective jurors. One of the many questions asked was there any reason you could not serve, and some had valid reasons such as what yours would be. The process may be different where you are, but I found everyone to be reasonable. We were told that we were appreciated and that it was known how disruptive serving can be. I hope your experience is similar.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
I am in California. I was told that here you can defer twice but must show up the third time.

They made me come in after the first deferral--I didn't get a second one.

Different cities/counties within the state probably have different procedures. That would explain why I only had one deferral and you get two.

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