Jury Duty and Nursing School

SC4Nurse2B · Jul 31, 2012

I have only been summoned to serve once, and was dismissed the first day. But when I received the summons, there was a form to fill out if your were unable to serve. It seemed pretty straight forward to me. I am terrified of being summoned to serve on a federal jury. I heard they don't care what your excuse is, and that site is almost 3 hours away from me. Yikes. I won't borrow trouble though. It could never happen.

grownuprosie · Jul 31, 2012

Please do not ignore your Jury summons like someone earlier in the thread. I have been summoned every three months since i started school a year ago. On the back of the summons, there is a box to explain why you are requesting an exemption which you can fill out and return. It is not that hard to get excused. I write that my education does not allow me the time off which would be necessary to serve. Serving at this time would require me to drop my classes setting my career behind a year. I also got excused for the summer because I explained that I only have the opportunity to work for three months out of the year due to school. If i take time off to serve, I would be losing out on money to pay for necessities for the rest of the year. Serving is a hardship at this point in my life and the court appears to be pretty understanding of that.

virgo,student nurse, CNA · Jul 31, 2012

I got a note from the school, I was attending and faxed it over to the clerks office. I haven't received any thing from the court since.I hope everything works out for you. Best of luck in school.

NurseDirtyBird · Jul 31, 2012

This exact thing happened to me in nursing school. It was for Federal jury duty too. Your summons comes with a form you fill out about your eligibility. On the federal summons, there was a space to explain why you feel you should be excused, and to give a future date when you were capable of serving. I wrote that I was currently a full time nursing student and unable to serve, and gave a date after graduation when I would be able to. This was under the advice of my department head. It was accepted, and they summoned me again on the later date I stated.

On local jury summonses, I've noticed they ask you to send a separate letter explaining why you should be excused. If you do that, but include the same information - including a future time you will be able to serve - you should be fine. Just make sure you follow up to make sure you've been excused.

grownuprosie · Jul 31, 2012

Just make sure you follow up to make sure you've been excused.

What they said. My county court house does not inform you of your status. you have to call and ask if your excuse was accepted.

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Jul 31, 2012

My county would not allow me to defer it, but I could reschedule it d/t being a student. I eventually served during my semester break.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jul 31, 2012

our state allows you to take one bye without explaining why, but then the next time they call you, you have to appear even if it's only get excused. however, there is a phone number to call the night before, and often the recording says something like, "if you are in groups 1,2, and 3, you are excused, and this counts for your once-every-three-years service."

being elderly, in charge of small kids, having to go to work, being a nurse, a physician, a vet, a lawyer, a judge.... none of these are automatic excuse-generators here. dh has a law degree and he served.

it's actually pretty interesting. i served on a drunk driving case and had a really good time with all the other women on the jury (all women, by the luck of the draw).

bear14 · Aug 1, 2012

There was nothing to fill out on the back of summons. It said if this would cause any undue hardship I had to write a letter and mail it to them and its up to their discretion. No faxing or phone calls. On the website theres no deferment option either. I talked to my school today and we are trying to work something out. Here's hoping. If I could defer it to the summer it would be great.

Tragically Hip · Aug 1, 2012

GrnTea, that sounds exactly how it was in Massachusetts, when I lived there. The first time I was called for jury duty at the Superior Court in Newberryport, I was the last juror chosen out of a pool of about 80, after the person chosen before me raised a big stink about having to serve. It was a 4-week-long medical malpractice case.

Within two years and a few days the called me again, to the same court. I used my one year delay "get out of jail free" card," and almost exactly a year later, I was called, as always, to the same court. Fortunately I wasn't seated on the jury that time.

They claimed no excuses after the first delay, but I find it hard to believe that they'd force a nursing student to serve, which would potentially cost that person a year of his career and a lot of money.

BundokSaint · Aug 1, 2012

I also would not recommend ignoring a jury summons.

If you have a legitimate reason preferably that can be backed up with documentation more than likely you will be excused especially if you write a polite, well-written, and respectful letter far in advance that clearly explains your situation.

I got out of Federal Jury Duty by doing this. I was scheduled for the last TEAS test that was available before the application deadline for my nursing school. As luck would have it, I got called for Federal Duty for the same month (yes, Fed duty has you on call for a month) that my TEAS was scheduled. I wrote a letter explaining my dilemma and how if I missed that test, I would miss the application deadline, and thus put my nursing school career on hold for at least another semester. I included a copy of a document from the testing center proving that I was scheduled for the TEAS on that certain date, and, thank God, I got a letter excusing me from the first 3 weeks of that month.

I would think being in nursing school and explaining the time commitment involved and the repercussions of missing class and especially clinical hours would provide more than enough justification to be excused.

DoGoodThenGo · Aug 1, 2012

I know this question has been asked before but the only dates I see for this question is 2006 and 2003 and I dont know if things have changed since then. So here goes, if you get called for jury duty while in nursing school how do you get out of it since its hard to make up classes and clinicals? Can the school drop you and make you wait to get back into the program? I know they can with medical issues but what about civic issues? I was told to talk to the chair of the program and I left her a message but if anyone else has any other input it would be great. Thanks!

Many states have been cracking down on exemptions and excused persons from jury duty whilst opening up the roles by revoking previous automatic exemptions such as lawyers, doctors, etc... on the grounds that it was found often the same persons were called too frequently, amoung other reasons.

When I was in college and received a jury summons simply contacted the telephone number on back to request an automatic excuse. It worked the first and second time but after three one is allowed no more so had to go down to the county clerk's office with my vaild student ID and recent transcript. A note was entered into the system under my name giving me an automatic three year exemption because one was in college. However after that all bets were off.

Sure enough about a year after I graduated got a jury summons! *LOL*

I would *NEVER* suggest anyone defy or ignore a jury duty summons. As one has said states and judges are cracking down because too many persons never bothered. A jury duty summons is just that, to ignore it risks being held in contempt of court and judges can and have thrown persons into jail for several days, made them pay fines *and* they still had to serve afterwards. Indeed if the judge doesn't like you he or she will keep you at court until a jury panel chooses you.

ames86 · Aug 1, 2012

We have been told to tell our instructors and they will call and get us dismissed from jury duty. They haven't been denied yet.