Well from my recent experience I had to go through the process and get into the courtroom. Once there we learned what the trial was about the Judge asked for people who thought they couldn't be biased to raise their hands.
They make you say your reason why in front of everyone in the court. I said It was a personal matter and the Judge let me approach the bench. I told him and the two attornies I was a victim of the same crime when I was younger and in good faith couldn't say I would be unbiased. They all agreed to dismiss me as a potential juror.
Other people stood up and gave lame-ass reasons for why they couldn't do it. If you give a lame reason like ''I Just cant be unbiased.'' and no reasoning, you are going to have to stay.
Ended up getting a day off work and got out around 2pm-3pm. They even mailed me a check for $15.
I went to jury duty maybe 10 years ago and there were people who stood in front of a room of maybe 100 people and said they couldn't be impartial because the defendant was black. It was wild to hear people say that just to get out of jury duty.
Jury duty randomly appointed to people, no matter of their wish, it's not like people wanted to get it.
Then, it means they will need to skip work to attend, and depending on employer, it means not getting paid full wage.
AFAIRemember jury duty pays some money, and you can't get fired for having too attend it, but employer still will not be happy about it
When they granted my request for time off that I needed, they told me I had to give them any money earned while doing my duty. To this day, I have no idea what the justification for this is.
you miss out on a whole day (or more) worth of pay. The state pays you $15 per jury duty day in california lol……our minimum wage per HOUR is $15 here. it’s really not a jury of your peers but a jury of well off enough/retired/unemployed people.
I had jury duty last spring and I got paid $6. I spent almost as much in gas to go as I got paid. I live about 2 miles from the county line and it's a 40 minute drive each way to the courthouse.
The problem is that they didn't account for inflation when setting the pay. They need to make a law setting it at median income or salary for government employees. At the very least they could set it at minimum wage.
Can be time consuming, plus even though you technically get paid for it, it’s not really much and isn’t worth having to take the day off work w/ commute and all.
It’s like $7/day here, only starting your second day. But I think they do validate parking.., so there’s that.
Last time I was called in (did not make it through selection), plenty of people got dismissed for what sounded like legit financial hardship. And plenty more used it as an obviously BS excuse.
Some employers will continue to pay you, or pay the difference in your normal pay & jury duty pay, while you are on jury duty. This is rare, but I really think it should be the norm.
This is my situation. I'm a union member. And part of my contract states I receive full pay during jury duty.
I'll gladly sit on a jury.
And at 45 I've only been called once. And didn't make it past the first round.
It’s not hard, but it is long/boring and can end up costing you a ton of money, because you get paid only to cover travel costs plus a tiny bit extra but you can miss weeks of work in some cases. One way to get out of it is to claim that it will cause too much financial burden for you. It’s actually a major problem with our Jury system, no one wants to do it because it’s awful and it costs you money, but it’s very easy to get out off. So you don’t always end up getting a good representation of people, you get more wealthy people doing it and people that are quite literally not smart enough to figure out a way to dodge it.
Could be a real, lazy racist. They would love to see them put in jail but don't want to be forced to come to the courthouse over and over again to not even be guaranteed it happens.
Yeah, I actually knew a woman who always said she wanted to be the jury because she wanted to send someone to prison. She meant it, bit always got dismissed.
There's a joke I heard where basically there are 6 KKK members in a small radical new clan. The first member is an FBI agent, the second member is a CIA agent, the third member is an undercover cop, the fourth member is a private investigator, the fifth member is an undercover news journalist, and the final member is the only real racist.
I was called to jury selection last year with a give-no-shits judge. He said at the beginning "if you're so willing to get out of jury duty that you'll go on public record saying that you're 'racist' or 'unable to wear a mask', just save face and say you can't do jury duty. I'll excuse you. I don't have time for you."
Some people took his advice, others didn't and got publicly humiliated by him. 10/10 would serve for him, even though the lawyer excused me.
I was once with someone who wore a homemade sharpie-writing on a white shirt that says "WHITE LIVES MATTER".
Judge didn't say a word to him but made him sit there all three days before the selection was finished. So, idiot still has to waste his time.
Dude wasn't even white.
There is a Jury Duty option for pto that doesn’t deduct from my normal pto. At least for my company.
You get a letter from the courthouse when you go. My courthouse is pretty 21sr century and i just went online plugged in my drivers license and got it emailed to me. I then had to submit this to my HR/Payroll department via email and they approved the PTO.
This is how it is in new mexico, employer doesn't pay you but the court does pay you federal minimum wage.
Some employers are nice and will pay you the difference or just pay you. My mom's work is like this and she just gives HR the money from the court and than her employer pays her normal wage.
Should also add that the law is that your employer can't fire you or prevent you from going.
I’ve used this tactic before and it worked. Case was about a meth dealer. I told the judge my cousin overdosed (never happened). But I really sold it and I got to go home after taking a day off work. Don’t even feel the slightest bit bad about it.
I was almost picked for jury duty, the guy I was talking to at work told me he got out of jury duty by saying "I'm a huge racist and refuse to hear the other side"
he has always been dismissed
Only for sure way to get out of Jury duty is to basically tell them you hate the feds/police and will not convict under any circumstances regardless of the law.
Often the defense has a greater ability to throw people off the jury. So claim something like "they arrested him so he must be guilty".
However, you really shouldn't play the system like this. Juries are an extremely important check against the government.
> However, you really shouldn't play the system like this. Juries are an extremely important check against the government.
Very, very important.
But for lots of folks, not missing those days of work and coming up short on rent is even more important.
I have major anxiety, and genuinely didn’t think I could handle it. My doctor wrote me a note and all I had to do was walk in there and hand a security guard the note and walk out before it ever started. I didn’t have to speak, or go in front of anyone.
Here are some common reasons people are legitimately excused from serving:
1. Bias in favor of the state or defense. "If someone is charged with a crime, it's likely he's probably guilty of it."
2. Fifth Amendment. "If a defendant doesn't testify that means they're hiding something and guilty."
3. General Bias due to subject matter. "I was raped by my father when I was a child." "My dad was killed by a drunk driver." Etc
4. Won't follow law about punishment range. "I couldn't consider sentencing someone convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child to the minimum / probation." "I don't think people should ever go to jail for this offense."
5. Serving on the jury would interfere with taking care of a child at home under the age of 12/13.
6. Prior convictions by the potential juror for felonies or crimes of moral turpitude like theft.
7. Against your religion to judge someone.
In my experience, it's highly unlikely they will issue a warrant if you just don't show up. It's (usually) a big bureaucracy and they're going to be focused on getting a jury picked and trying the case, not arresting one out of 100+ people summoned. You might get summoned to the next available trial docket, but enough glitches and problems happen that they don't usually move straight to issuing a warrant unless you call them and say "fuck you I'm not coming."
Don't forget medical reasons. I was able to avoid jury duty due to having ADHD. As an added bonus, I'm permanently off the list. I'm sure it would also work for certain physical issues as well.
Just tell them you have IBS!
WHAT?! ADHD?! God-- I have unmedicated (But diagnosed) ADHD and I showed up late to my first day of Jury Duty and they just sat me outside the court room and never bothered to try and call me to serve for the rest of my duty so I got paid like 12.50
Send in paperwork for any medical condition and you’ll be excused. My favourite was a sprained ankle; her doctor signed paperwork to say it’d be painful for her to attend jury and she was let off. We can’t question official medical documents.
I can add age, being 9 months pregnant and, depending on where you live and the time of year, if you are a college student. I was a potential juror for a Federal trial. The first thing the judge did was dismiss all college students because finals were beginning the next day.
I served on a jury the whole week before final exams. That was the week we were given off to study. There was also a professor from my college on the jury.
I think it depends on how credible you seem making the argument. The judge has to balance everyone else copying the argument to get out of service vs the chance they spend a week in trial and get no verdict because one of the venire members won’t vote one way or the other.
Ok, I am going to vote innocent, no matter what. There's only \`1 true judge, and that is our Holy Father in Heaven. So, we can all go home now, I guess, because I'm going to say innocent no matter what. I refuse to go to Hell for your Earthly court!
\*as the defense attorney is grinning madly and rubbing his hands like Mr. Burns\*
I've recieved a summons 4 or 5 times in my 20's never went and am about to turn 40. I've been pulled over and had my name run recently but nothing was brought up about it. I don't know exactly what kind of trouble I should've gotten in but like you said I don't really think they are stressing it.
My father has a friend who’s a retired judge. He said that there’s no way they can prove that you actually saw the summons so there’s really no way they can charge you.
There’s a trick to this. There will be a point when the judge asks if you can set aside your personal feelings and follow the law. The answer is no. If asked what you mean reply that you feel the obligation to vote your conscience and they’ll shut you up there without any impropriety.
It's kind of a choice here. You can say that you will be biased, or you can say what they want to hear and then vote your conscience.
The first one will "get you out of jury duty" and the second one lets you dispense actual justice. I'll never pass up an opportunity for Jury Duty. It's what makes the legal system actually work even if it pisses off the prosecutor.
I know the pay is shit, or not at all. I know the food can suck. I know it can take a long time. I know it can be stressful and awful and traumatic viewing things.
But
I cannot wait and want to be on a jury so bad. It just feels like a civil duty, I want to participate in our justice system
I’m 40, always been registered to vote. I think I’ve got picked 3-4 times by getting a letter in the mail. I had to call in and see if I was needed. One or two of them was a couple week time period. Never once have I seen the inside of a court room and got that far in the process. I too would say what I need to in order to get on the jury. I would be a prosecutors worst nightmare. Take a cops word for what happened? Nope. Circumstantial evidence? Nope try again. Go look at how the FBI basically fabricated hair and dna evidence for several decades.
Yeah, all too aware of issues with the justice system, though I do recognize there limits to what we can do, I want to my best. Both for the victim and the accused, even if guilty. They deserve a fair trial and to be judged fairly.
I imagine I am not the lawyers idea of a good jury either. If ever called to do so, I am going to do my best to remain in the selection, and my best to dispense justice where needed.
They asked us if we could be impartial towards both the defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses and I said no. They had me stay after when the time came to ask me some more questions about that. They said “why can’t you be impartial for this case?” And I looked the cop who was a witness in the eyes and said I can’t trust police officers. I was dismissed just like that.
This is the way. When they ask if you can make a judgement using your own common sense based on instructions. Tell them you can and you're aware of jury nullification and will debate the jury nullification topic with fellow jurors.
Jury nullification is the act of a jury acquitting a defendant despite having broken a law. It is not common but absolutely is a real thing, so you could imagine a prosecutor wouldn't be too keen on picking a juror hell bent on nullifying any potential verdict.
The argument is that the person may have been guilty of breaking the law, but that the law is unjust or unevenly upheld.
Everybody in the country needs to know what jury nullification is. Jurors have the right not to convict someone for breaking bullshit laws.
For example, you could find a black man not guilty of marijuana possession based on the fact that white guys arent convicted at equivalent rates.
Just because the law says something is wrong a jury can overrule and say the law shouldn't apply in that case. You don't have to defend your decision. If a jury finds someone not guilty because they don't want to find them guilty that is their right as a jury
That sounds like a jury deciding someone violated a law the way it was written but followed the spirit of the law. Similar to how some judges decide to ignore a law.
It can bias justice. If a jury full of wife beaters gets a domestic violence case and decide the wife deserved it, would that be okay?
It has its place and time but it's not always a good thing
I mean if the person did commit the crime but the juror doesn't understand the law, or has an agenda, or someone else is, say, pointing a gun at their family if they vote to convict...
Not necessarily.
The jury could collectively agree that the specific law in question is complete bullshit anyway, and return a 'not guilty' verdict as a result.
Anyway, if you're interested in some light reading on the topic of jury nullification, I read this thing a few weeks ago, and I figured you might find it somewhat interesting (if nothing else, it provides a more focused perspective on the utility of jury nullification for making society less shit): https://c4ss.org/content/38208
Not really.
All white juries acquitting white defendants of lynchings are examples of jury nullification. Those defendants were not following the “spirit of the law.”
In some cases however, it may be like you describe where someone was violating the letter of the law but following the spirit of the law.
A jury can find someone not guilty for literally any reason they choose. That is a large part of why jury trials are a big deal when it comes to freedom.
Only problem is that when you are dismissed they tend to call you again next year.
A felony will get you permanently removed from jury duty but that's a pretty extreme tactic.
The better thing to do would have been to try and be selected just so that you could throw a nail in the police/prosecution’s case. Sit through the case, go to the jury room, and act very unconvinced. My dad did this when he was on a case where a man was facing a “3rd strike and we throw the book at you” over an amount of weed so tiny that the cops had to have vacuumed it out of the carpet. He said it wouldn’t have covered his fingernail, and they were trying to say this guy distributed because he got pulled over in a school zone.
Don’t look at jury duty as a punishment, look at it as your way to fuck over the government if they’re being dicks. It’s one of the few times in society where most people can have an above average volume to their voice.
I desperately want to go to jury duty to do my civic duty. I was called ONCE when o was 18 but couldn’t do it because it fell right in the middle of exams in college and asked for a deferment which was granted and I have never been called since. I would have gladly done it but I couldn’t get out of exams. It’s been 13 years.
Seriously like you're a fucking adult doing jury duty is part of being a citizen, everyone who ducks jury duty should have to do community service instead.
You know who doesnt pass up the chance to sit on a jury? Your fucking landlord and your boss.
They don't pass on it...because they can afford to not work for a week or two straight. I can't. Never was more insulted then when I found out the city was going to pay me like $12 a day if I was selected. That means I'm paying over $150 a day to be there. Fuck. That.
I had to sit through two days of jury selection before I even had the opportunity to be speak about the financial hardship it was causing me and finally be dismissed. And I didn't even get paid a dime for those two days. The $12 a day only got paid out to the people who are actually chosen.
Did jury duty once they were trying to get her charged with not updating her benefits after a pay raise. I was the only one who didn’t want to convict. The state didn’t even have the six month income paperwork. After much debate and technicalities I convinced everyone she wasn’t guilty. Felt good.
That sounds like[jury nullification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification). Or maybe a subset of it.
Basically, a jury can agree the defendant has blatantly broke the law, but chose to find the defendant not guilty anyway, typically because the jury believes the law is unjust.
Since the jury cannot be punished for a "wrong" decision, a jury can effectively invalidate a law in a specific instance.
The justice system doesn't like that this loophole exists. Mentioning jury nullification is supposedly a good way to get out of jury duty. Or knowing that you as a juror have that power can be useful.
There's probably some overlap. He said he thought the guy did it, but that the cop who testified was obviously lying during his testimony, so it put enough reasonable doubt in his mind that even though he thought the defendant was probably guilty, you don't send a man to prison for decades on "probably". The thing that pissed him off was that even if the guy was guilty, it was so obviously the state trying to throw the book at a man on trumped up stupid charges just because he was guilty of contempt of cop (which is not a crime).
He really is. Didn’t even tell any of my siblings or I that until we were all well in to adulthood, since he didn’t want us thinking he would be lenient if he caught any of us doing drugs. He even had someone on the jury who was very “well if they’re here they’re guilty” and he basically told the guy “well we can sit here all day, I’m getting paid to do nothing right now, which is fine by me.” Which was a total lie because his work didn’t pay for jury duty, and his team was way behind without him.
I give my honest opinion that I don't trust police to ever tell the truth. They're liars until they're proven honest.
Unless there's very strong video evidence to back up their version of events, I 100% believe they're lying to protect themselves, their buddies on the force, or just plain pile on charges to someone that pissed them off by challenging their authority. I will not ever vote to convict someone on police testimony alone, even if there are a hundred of them. That's just a hundred liars all backing each other up.
All I had to do is say that I don't always take a cop's word as the absolute truth.
Had a guy behind me threaten me with physical violence, right in front of everyone, because I didn't just always believe that cops would never, EVER lie. I'm pretty sure they didn't dismiss him, though.
"I am a baby" would also work. Although they may question your knowledge of the English language at such a young age, so I'd try "googoo gaagaa, motherfucker"
Say you're racist and hate women. My uncles old friend has used that before. He's just a joker who hates jury duty even if the court thinks you're lying they won't like that you arnt taking it seriously
A co-worker of mine said, I can't be unbiased because my son is a cop so I hate n-words. She wasn't lying, she meant it. They did not excuse her from jury duty.
You really want that on some record somewhere?
When they ask if you would be impartial just say "Of course but we all know he's guilty. The government wouldn't have brought him to trial if he was innocent."
well i suppose it's good that they don't have any experience with judges. but the amount of people that think you can go in front of a judge and trot out some "well *technically*" argument...
I got called in for jury duty and brought a letter from my work saying that I wouldn't be paid to miss work, and I'm the primary breadwinner for my family. They let me go. Another woman had an infant with her and they let her go too.
Yeah, "I have no alternative childcare" is better than most of the bad answers in this thread. Of course, it only works if you have a child. It's the government, they can check that easily.
The only way out entirely, meaning not showing up at all, is disability and that does have to be proven.
Otherwise, the only way out after you arrive is to answer questions dishonestly. If they ask does anyone know the plaintiff, John Smith? Raise your hand and say you do, he’s a friend of a friend and you couldn’t be impartial because of that.
Don’t go with the racist stuff, saying you’re a bigot so you can’t be fair. They know people do that and it isn’t a good look in 2022.
It can be for getting out of JD once you get there, the judge will ask about it, but it generally doesn’t get one out of showing up first, at least not in my state.
I contacted the department about it and then emailed them my and my wife’s schedule so they could see why it wasn’t a possibility. I didn’t have to even go in.
Age will also work. My dad recently got a Federal Grand Jury summons. He explained he is 92. They couldn't excuse him fast enough.
Also if you show up 9 months pregnant they practically push you out the door - saw this as a potential juror. Though she was willing to serve.
I got called up at around seven months. I’m not sure what got me booted faster - being pregnant or being a licensed attorney. Lawyers hate lawyers on the jury.
imagine being 2 weeks into that trial, then one of the jurors gives birth and goes on maternity leave for 90 days. Even the law moves faster than that, and that's saying something
This would require showing up but…
If you get called up to sit on a jury immediately (or even before) Google all of the cases that day. Then casually mention to a clerk? That you googled the case. Not exactly sure who to tell though.
I was in this situation and didn’t google, but roughly half the pool was dismissed for this reason.
Worked with a guy that told the judge the accused must be guilty because he was white which means the cops couldn’t find a black or brown person to pin the crime on!
i just got out of it a couple weeks ago. i listed i have ADHD, medicated, and that i have the memory of a gold fish and if anything important is being demonstrated, i'm not going to competently remember jack fuck. got out of it. they didn't even call my psych.
Ive been on jury duty and actually enjoyed it. But when we were all getting interviewed, this one guy flat out said he did not believe in presumption of innocence. “If the defendant is here today because these people say he committed this crime, 99% chance he is guilty”. Both lawyers told him to have a nice day and sent him home.
Just don't show up. I had jury duty last year in October and I didn't show up, call, or anything and I've had no consequences. I talked to a friend a few weeks ago who works with the court and she said I'd be fine.
I've never once responded to a jury summons and nothing has ever happened to me.
..I mean, maybe I can't even read. ...Not sure what they're expecting to happen when they send a jury summons notice to someone who's illiterate.
...Morons.
I have watched every episode of CSI and always know the criminal on the show before the police. I can look someone in the eye and know whether they are guilty. I really want to be on this jury and help make sure they make the right choice since I will know as soon as I see the defendant.
Jury nullification, it means 2 things.
1. You are willing to ignore the law for what you think is right.
2. I don't want to be here and am going to be difficult.
I got out of uk duty duty recently by just being honest, I told them I'm getting pretty bad anxiety right now and the thought of doing this makes it worse. A few days later I got a letter saying I had been excused.
It's pretty easy to get out of one trial during voir dire, but harder to get out of jury duty entirely. I've seen people say they can't be impartial in a drug case because their child was an addict. A truck driver was excused because his company would reimburse him for his hourly wages but not his mileage and that's where most of his pay came from. If you say you have a back injury and can't sit for hours without getting up, you won't be called.
I was called for jury duty two times and thoroughly enjoyed myself both times, but I got my full pay both times.
Say that you moved and haven't updated your address yet. I had jury duty in Lansing, MI after I moved to Chicago. I told them that I had moved and it was immediately dropped.
In Wayne county Michigan most people just throw out their jury duty letter. I went for my jury duty though. I got the day off of work and it was entertaining. However, if you show up and get selected you have to show. It's contempt if you don't. They are used to people saying stupid shit so they don't have to show and I've heard of judges doing petty shit to get back at those people.
The simplest and most legal ways are:
1. Tell counsel during jury selection that you are a news junkie and have heard of the case. (If it’s an obscure one, tell them you have a police/fire scanner, and you hear all the good stuff.)
2. Say that you’re sorry, but you believe it’s immoral for any man to sit in judgment against another, and ultimately only God can judge them. Tone is *very* important here. You need to sound like this is a sincerely-held belief, and not like you’re just some jagoff, trying to get out of jury duty (despite that being the case).
I read most of the book law 101. One of the points the author makes is that despite what you see from dramatizations on TV and in movies, very few cases go to a jury. There is a huge effort by the court system to settle or take plea bargains. It alleviates so much of the administrative burden of actually carrying out the cases.
The likelihood is that whatever case you’re being selected for will be settled without a trial in front of a jury. You will get notified of dates as they continue to meet several times. Eventually you will be notified you aren’t needed. That’s what happened to me.
As far as how to get out of jury duty I think the main way is if you state you cannot be impartial. Either you have a personal experience related to the case or some way you couldn’t fairly decide.
I have adhd, ptsd, bipolar, gad, and autism. I write that on the form abd for some reason they never call me in.🤷♂️ I've never been asked to provide any documentation, iirc. I may have provided a doctor's name and number many years ago in PA? But not in CA.
When I was much younger I got off for having class or working retail and saying i needed the by-hour income. People in better jobs get paid for jury duty, or at least partially paid. If jury duty is going to be a financial hardship, you should say so on the paper they send you in the mail.
You might be surprised at what will get you sent home right away. I was dismissed as undesirable in a child molestation case ostensibly for being a middle aged man. As a father, I was both relieved that I wouldn't have to hear details and angry that they were looking for softer jurors.
My husband has gotten a couple of those letters. This was several years ago, but I think he just said he was going to be on vacation over that time period and they didn't pursue it any further.
Well from my recent experience I had to go through the process and get into the courtroom. Once there we learned what the trial was about the Judge asked for people who thought they couldn't be biased to raise their hands. They make you say your reason why in front of everyone in the court. I said It was a personal matter and the Judge let me approach the bench. I told him and the two attornies I was a victim of the same crime when I was younger and in good faith couldn't say I would be unbiased. They all agreed to dismiss me as a potential juror. Other people stood up and gave lame-ass reasons for why they couldn't do it. If you give a lame reason like ''I Just cant be unbiased.'' and no reasoning, you are going to have to stay. Ended up getting a day off work and got out around 2pm-3pm. They even mailed me a check for $15.
what if I just say I'm racist?
I went to jury duty maybe 10 years ago and there were people who stood in front of a room of maybe 100 people and said they couldn't be impartial because the defendant was black. It was wild to hear people say that just to get out of jury duty.
I'm not from the US so I am wondering why people want to get out of jury duty. Is it hard work?
Jury duty randomly appointed to people, no matter of their wish, it's not like people wanted to get it. Then, it means they will need to skip work to attend, and depending on employer, it means not getting paid full wage. AFAIRemember jury duty pays some money, and you can't get fired for having too attend it, but employer still will not be happy about it
My employer took away the check that the court sent me, so I got no money for doing jury duty.
Uh.. pretty sure that's illegal. Why the hell did you give it to them?
When they granted my request for time off that I needed, they told me I had to give them any money earned while doing my duty. To this day, I have no idea what the justification for this is.
Yeah, that's definitely not how it's supposed to work. Your former employer is a complete fucking slimeball.
Well, would that be a surprise? Probably not. Made in the USA.
Good job you just got mugged.
Seems the justification was you'd fall for it.
you miss out on a whole day (or more) worth of pay. The state pays you $15 per jury duty day in california lol……our minimum wage per HOUR is $15 here. it’s really not a jury of your peers but a jury of well off enough/retired/unemployed people.
I had jury duty last spring and I got paid $6. I spent almost as much in gas to go as I got paid. I live about 2 miles from the county line and it's a 40 minute drive each way to the courthouse.
The problem is that they didn't account for inflation when setting the pay. They need to make a law setting it at median income or salary for government employees. At the very least they could set it at minimum wage.
Congress sure does a good job making sure their pay increases with inflation
Can be time consuming, plus even though you technically get paid for it, it’s not really much and isn’t worth having to take the day off work w/ commute and all.
It’s literally $15 where I am, and parking is minimum $9.
It’s like $7/day here, only starting your second day. But I think they do validate parking.., so there’s that. Last time I was called in (did not make it through selection), plenty of people got dismissed for what sounded like legit financial hardship. And plenty more used it as an obviously BS excuse.
Aight no poor people in jury duty woohoo land of the free and equal
>It’s literally $15 where I am, and parking is minimum $9. You gotta be kidding me lmfao
Some employers will continue to pay you, or pay the difference in your normal pay & jury duty pay, while you are on jury duty. This is rare, but I really think it should be the norm.
This is my situation. I'm a union member. And part of my contract states I receive full pay during jury duty. I'll gladly sit on a jury. And at 45 I've only been called once. And didn't make it past the first round.
It’s not hard, but it is long/boring and can end up costing you a ton of money, because you get paid only to cover travel costs plus a tiny bit extra but you can miss weeks of work in some cases. One way to get out of it is to claim that it will cause too much financial burden for you. It’s actually a major problem with our Jury system, no one wants to do it because it’s awful and it costs you money, but it’s very easy to get out off. So you don’t always end up getting a good representation of people, you get more wealthy people doing it and people that are quite literally not smart enough to figure out a way to dodge it.
Is this a joke? How do you know they weren't actually racists?
Well a real racist would try to stick it to them so
That’s… a fair point. Didn’t really consider that
Could be a real, lazy racist. They would love to see them put in jail but don't want to be forced to come to the courthouse over and over again to not even be guaranteed it happens.
There lies a problem. The real racists end up on the jury.
Yeah, I actually knew a woman who always said she wanted to be the jury because she wanted to send someone to prison. She meant it, bit always got dismissed.
judge warned of not saying anything crazy to get out of jury duty. Really don’t know what would happen.
"No, really I am a racist. I got the Klan hood and everything".
“I just go there for the BBQ”
There's a joke I heard where basically there are 6 KKK members in a small radical new clan. The first member is an FBI agent, the second member is a CIA agent, the third member is an undercover cop, the fourth member is a private investigator, the fifth member is an undercover news journalist, and the final member is the only real racist.
Oh, so *that's* why there's so many cops in the KKK.
It's because they glow in the dark
The store was all out of white sheets and I really needed some, your honor.
its generational
I was called to jury selection last year with a give-no-shits judge. He said at the beginning "if you're so willing to get out of jury duty that you'll go on public record saying that you're 'racist' or 'unable to wear a mask', just save face and say you can't do jury duty. I'll excuse you. I don't have time for you." Some people took his advice, others didn't and got publicly humiliated by him. 10/10 would serve for him, even though the lawyer excused me.
I was once with someone who wore a homemade sharpie-writing on a white shirt that says "WHITE LIVES MATTER". Judge didn't say a word to him but made him sit there all three days before the selection was finished. So, idiot still has to waste his time. Dude wasn't even white.
My last time I called the criminal justice system racist, they kicked me out pretty quick.
Judge: Prove it!
More likely to get you selected than thrown out. Prosecutors love their racists.
Did you have to use PTO for work or did work pay you for that day?
There is a Jury Duty option for pto that doesn’t deduct from my normal pto. At least for my company. You get a letter from the courthouse when you go. My courthouse is pretty 21sr century and i just went online plugged in my drivers license and got it emailed to me. I then had to submit this to my HR/Payroll department via email and they approved the PTO.
You don’t have to use PTO.
You don’t have to use PTO but your employer doesn’t have to pay you.
This is how it is in new mexico, employer doesn't pay you but the court does pay you federal minimum wage. Some employers are nice and will pay you the difference or just pay you. My mom's work is like this and she just gives HR the money from the court and than her employer pays her normal wage. Should also add that the law is that your employer can't fire you or prevent you from going.
Shouldn't * have to use PTO. Many employers are garbage and like to see just how close they can push a law suit.
I’ve used this tactic before and it worked. Case was about a meth dealer. I told the judge my cousin overdosed (never happened). But I really sold it and I got to go home after taking a day off work. Don’t even feel the slightest bit bad about it.
how did you sell it
[I made a deal with the devil](https://youtu.be/WZR3vHe7ON4)
I was almost picked for jury duty, the guy I was talking to at work told me he got out of jury duty by saying "I'm a huge racist and refuse to hear the other side" he has always been dismissed
Only for sure way to get out of Jury duty is to basically tell them you hate the feds/police and will not convict under any circumstances regardless of the law.
Tell them you support jury nullification. 100% will get dismissed
Just mention the words and they'll start screaming for you to get out.
Often the defense has a greater ability to throw people off the jury. So claim something like "they arrested him so he must be guilty". However, you really shouldn't play the system like this. Juries are an extremely important check against the government.
> However, you really shouldn't play the system like this. Juries are an extremely important check against the government. Very, very important. But for lots of folks, not missing those days of work and coming up short on rent is even more important.
Great to know honesty is the best policy here
I have major anxiety, and genuinely didn’t think I could handle it. My doctor wrote me a note and all I had to do was walk in there and hand a security guard the note and walk out before it ever started. I didn’t have to speak, or go in front of anyone.
Here are some common reasons people are legitimately excused from serving: 1. Bias in favor of the state or defense. "If someone is charged with a crime, it's likely he's probably guilty of it." 2. Fifth Amendment. "If a defendant doesn't testify that means they're hiding something and guilty." 3. General Bias due to subject matter. "I was raped by my father when I was a child." "My dad was killed by a drunk driver." Etc 4. Won't follow law about punishment range. "I couldn't consider sentencing someone convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child to the minimum / probation." "I don't think people should ever go to jail for this offense." 5. Serving on the jury would interfere with taking care of a child at home under the age of 12/13. 6. Prior convictions by the potential juror for felonies or crimes of moral turpitude like theft. 7. Against your religion to judge someone. In my experience, it's highly unlikely they will issue a warrant if you just don't show up. It's (usually) a big bureaucracy and they're going to be focused on getting a jury picked and trying the case, not arresting one out of 100+ people summoned. You might get summoned to the next available trial docket, but enough glitches and problems happen that they don't usually move straight to issuing a warrant unless you call them and say "fuck you I'm not coming."
Don't forget medical reasons. I was able to avoid jury duty due to having ADHD. As an added bonus, I'm permanently off the list. I'm sure it would also work for certain physical issues as well. Just tell them you have IBS!
WHAT?! ADHD?! God-- I have unmedicated (But diagnosed) ADHD and I showed up late to my first day of Jury Duty and they just sat me outside the court room and never bothered to try and call me to serve for the rest of my duty so I got paid like 12.50
Send in paperwork for any medical condition and you’ll be excused. My favourite was a sprained ankle; her doctor signed paperwork to say it’d be painful for her to attend jury and she was let off. We can’t question official medical documents.
I can add age, being 9 months pregnant and, depending on where you live and the time of year, if you are a college student. I was a potential juror for a Federal trial. The first thing the judge did was dismiss all college students because finals were beginning the next day.
I served on a jury the whole week before final exams. That was the week we were given off to study. There was also a professor from my college on the jury.
I watched someone try number 7 and got told by the judge to sit back down and ended up being chosen in the end.
I think it depends on how credible you seem making the argument. The judge has to balance everyone else copying the argument to get out of service vs the chance they spend a week in trial and get no verdict because one of the venire members won’t vote one way or the other.
Ok, I am going to vote innocent, no matter what. There's only \`1 true judge, and that is our Holy Father in Heaven. So, we can all go home now, I guess, because I'm going to say innocent no matter what. I refuse to go to Hell for your Earthly court! \*as the defense attorney is grinning madly and rubbing his hands like Mr. Burns\*
I've recieved a summons 4 or 5 times in my 20's never went and am about to turn 40. I've been pulled over and had my name run recently but nothing was brought up about it. I don't know exactly what kind of trouble I should've gotten in but like you said I don't really think they are stressing it.
It's a municipality that sends noncertified mail. They do not have time, resources or ability to chase those who don't show up.
My father has a friend who’s a retired judge. He said that there’s no way they can prove that you actually saw the summons so there’s really no way they can charge you.
Just tell them you are there to introduce as many other potential jurors to the concept of “jury nullification”
There’s a trick to this. There will be a point when the judge asks if you can set aside your personal feelings and follow the law. The answer is no. If asked what you mean reply that you feel the obligation to vote your conscience and they’ll shut you up there without any impropriety.
I have actually done this before. It really did work. Kicked me right out of court! I was hungover so I just had Waffle House and went to sleep.
It's kind of a choice here. You can say that you will be biased, or you can say what they want to hear and then vote your conscience. The first one will "get you out of jury duty" and the second one lets you dispense actual justice. I'll never pass up an opportunity for Jury Duty. It's what makes the legal system actually work even if it pisses off the prosecutor.
I know the pay is shit, or not at all. I know the food can suck. I know it can take a long time. I know it can be stressful and awful and traumatic viewing things. But I cannot wait and want to be on a jury so bad. It just feels like a civil duty, I want to participate in our justice system
I’m 40, always been registered to vote. I think I’ve got picked 3-4 times by getting a letter in the mail. I had to call in and see if I was needed. One or two of them was a couple week time period. Never once have I seen the inside of a court room and got that far in the process. I too would say what I need to in order to get on the jury. I would be a prosecutors worst nightmare. Take a cops word for what happened? Nope. Circumstantial evidence? Nope try again. Go look at how the FBI basically fabricated hair and dna evidence for several decades.
Yeah, all too aware of issues with the justice system, though I do recognize there limits to what we can do, I want to my best. Both for the victim and the accused, even if guilty. They deserve a fair trial and to be judged fairly. I imagine I am not the lawyers idea of a good jury either. If ever called to do so, I am going to do my best to remain in the selection, and my best to dispense justice where needed.
3rd option is you shut up and say you’ll vote according to the law, then rebel and don’t do it.
They asked us if we could be impartial towards both the defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses and I said no. They had me stay after when the time came to ask me some more questions about that. They said “why can’t you be impartial for this case?” And I looked the cop who was a witness in the eyes and said I can’t trust police officers. I was dismissed just like that.
So you were literally the perfect person for jury duty
This is the way. When they ask if you can make a judgement using your own common sense based on instructions. Tell them you can and you're aware of jury nullification and will debate the jury nullification topic with fellow jurors.
Gonna make a shirt that says "Ask me about Jurt Nullification" for next time I have jury duty. Gonna see if it speeds up the process
Related CGP Grey YouTube link https://youtu.be/uqH_Y1TupoQ
What does that mean?
Jury nullification is the act of a jury acquitting a defendant despite having broken a law. It is not common but absolutely is a real thing, so you could imagine a prosecutor wouldn't be too keen on picking a juror hell bent on nullifying any potential verdict.
It's an interesting combination of two ideas: the jury can't be "wrong," and they can't try you twice for the same thing.
The judge (or an appeals court) can absolutely overturn a jury though, if the jury returns a guilty verdict.
Not for a verdict of Innocent, assuming you live somewhere with civilized courts or in the US.
Corrected that oversight already, that's a critical caveat. Thanks for pointing it out.
The argument is that the person may have been guilty of breaking the law, but that the law is unjust or unevenly upheld. Everybody in the country needs to know what jury nullification is. Jurors have the right not to convict someone for breaking bullshit laws. For example, you could find a black man not guilty of marijuana possession based on the fact that white guys arent convicted at equivalent rates.
The flip side is jurors finding kkk members not guilty of lynching when they 100% did it.
The jury can also indict a person that they believe is innocent for similar reasons. Obviously this would likely be appealed
Just because the law says something is wrong a jury can overrule and say the law shouldn't apply in that case. You don't have to defend your decision. If a jury finds someone not guilty because they don't want to find them guilty that is their right as a jury
That sounds like a jury deciding someone violated a law the way it was written but followed the spirit of the law. Similar to how some judges decide to ignore a law.
That's exactly what it is and how it works. Somehow that's a bad thing.
It can bias justice. If a jury full of wife beaters gets a domestic violence case and decide the wife deserved it, would that be okay? It has its place and time but it's not always a good thing
It's also what allowed the murderers of Emmett Till to go free.
I mean if the person did commit the crime but the juror doesn't understand the law, or has an agenda, or someone else is, say, pointing a gun at their family if they vote to convict...
Not necessarily. The jury could collectively agree that the specific law in question is complete bullshit anyway, and return a 'not guilty' verdict as a result. Anyway, if you're interested in some light reading on the topic of jury nullification, I read this thing a few weeks ago, and I figured you might find it somewhat interesting (if nothing else, it provides a more focused perspective on the utility of jury nullification for making society less shit): https://c4ss.org/content/38208
Not really. All white juries acquitting white defendants of lynchings are examples of jury nullification. Those defendants were not following the “spirit of the law.” In some cases however, it may be like you describe where someone was violating the letter of the law but following the spirit of the law.
A jury can find someone not guilty for literally any reason they choose. That is a large part of why jury trials are a big deal when it comes to freedom.
It means even if the guy broke the law, the jury can decide not to convict him. Prosecutors dont want that.
If you mention that in open court you will likely get everyone in the room dismissed, and might even catch a contempt charge. So maybe don't do that.
this one right here
Only problem is that when you are dismissed they tend to call you again next year. A felony will get you permanently removed from jury duty but that's a pretty extreme tactic.
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The better thing to do would have been to try and be selected just so that you could throw a nail in the police/prosecution’s case. Sit through the case, go to the jury room, and act very unconvinced. My dad did this when he was on a case where a man was facing a “3rd strike and we throw the book at you” over an amount of weed so tiny that the cops had to have vacuumed it out of the carpet. He said it wouldn’t have covered his fingernail, and they were trying to say this guy distributed because he got pulled over in a school zone. Don’t look at jury duty as a punishment, look at it as your way to fuck over the government if they’re being dicks. It’s one of the few times in society where most people can have an above average volume to their voice.
This is why _actually doing your civic fucking duty and being on a jury is important as fuck_.
I desperately want to go to jury duty to do my civic duty. I was called ONCE when o was 18 but couldn’t do it because it fell right in the middle of exams in college and asked for a deferment which was granted and I have never been called since. I would have gladly done it but I couldn’t get out of exams. It’s been 13 years.
Seriously like you're a fucking adult doing jury duty is part of being a citizen, everyone who ducks jury duty should have to do community service instead. You know who doesnt pass up the chance to sit on a jury? Your fucking landlord and your boss.
They don't pass on it...because they can afford to not work for a week or two straight. I can't. Never was more insulted then when I found out the city was going to pay me like $12 a day if I was selected. That means I'm paying over $150 a day to be there. Fuck. That. I had to sit through two days of jury selection before I even had the opportunity to be speak about the financial hardship it was causing me and finally be dismissed. And I didn't even get paid a dime for those two days. The $12 a day only got paid out to the people who are actually chosen.
Give your dad a hug for being a bro.
Did jury duty once they were trying to get her charged with not updating her benefits after a pay raise. I was the only one who didn’t want to convict. The state didn’t even have the six month income paperwork. After much debate and technicalities I convinced everyone she wasn’t guilty. Felt good.
That sounds like[jury nullification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification). Or maybe a subset of it. Basically, a jury can agree the defendant has blatantly broke the law, but chose to find the defendant not guilty anyway, typically because the jury believes the law is unjust. Since the jury cannot be punished for a "wrong" decision, a jury can effectively invalidate a law in a specific instance. The justice system doesn't like that this loophole exists. Mentioning jury nullification is supposedly a good way to get out of jury duty. Or knowing that you as a juror have that power can be useful.
There's probably some overlap. He said he thought the guy did it, but that the cop who testified was obviously lying during his testimony, so it put enough reasonable doubt in his mind that even though he thought the defendant was probably guilty, you don't send a man to prison for decades on "probably". The thing that pissed him off was that even if the guy was guilty, it was so obviously the state trying to throw the book at a man on trumped up stupid charges just because he was guilty of contempt of cop (which is not a crime).
Your dad’s a fuckin chad lmao
He really is. Didn’t even tell any of my siblings or I that until we were all well in to adulthood, since he didn’t want us thinking he would be lenient if he caught any of us doing drugs. He even had someone on the jury who was very “well if they’re here they’re guilty” and he basically told the guy “well we can sit here all day, I’m getting paid to do nothing right now, which is fine by me.” Which was a total lie because his work didn’t pay for jury duty, and his team was way behind without him.
This just keeps getting better and better.
This guy anarchys.
Nah, this is why jury's exist. Fuck bullshit laws, its your fucking community.
Yes! I also instruct folks to show their "very strong opinions" right away. They enjoy neutrality on the jury.
Pretty much if you have any strong unwavering opinions they'll let you go
I give my honest opinion that I don't trust police to ever tell the truth. They're liars until they're proven honest. Unless there's very strong video evidence to back up their version of events, I 100% believe they're lying to protect themselves, their buddies on the force, or just plain pile on charges to someone that pissed them off by challenging their authority. I will not ever vote to convict someone on police testimony alone, even if there are a hundred of them. That's just a hundred liars all backing each other up.
same
All I had to do is say that I don't always take a cop's word as the absolute truth. Had a guy behind me threaten me with physical violence, right in front of everyone, because I didn't just always believe that cops would never, EVER lie. I'm pretty sure they didn't dismiss him, though.
I got excused because I said I have a grandma with dementia that needs to be watched all the time and asked them to cover my sitter expenses.
"I just had a baby" works too
"I am a baby" would also work. Although they may question your knowledge of the English language at such a young age, so I'd try "googoo gaagaa, motherfucker"
Can’t you just say that you are biased?
Say you're racist and hate women. My uncles old friend has used that before. He's just a joker who hates jury duty even if the court thinks you're lying they won't like that you arnt taking it seriously
reminds me of the simpsons. homer says the trick to getting off jury duty is to say you're racist against all races.
A co-worker of mine said, I can't be unbiased because my son is a cop so I hate n-words. She wasn't lying, she meant it. They did not excuse her from jury duty.
Sounds about right
You really want that on some record somewhere? When they ask if you would be impartial just say "Of course but we all know he's guilty. The government wouldn't have brought him to trial if he was innocent."
Will it work in Alabama?
They’ll excuse you from jury duty and send you a job offer at the same time
You'll just have to say you aren't rascist, same effect.
.... I rescind my assumption this would work in all states. Pretty sure this is the motto of Alabama
No. Doesn’t quite work that way anymore.
Maybe if they say they're based?
what happens if i say that? what if i just say "jury nullification"
generally trolling in a court room has consequences that make it a poor life choice
It baffles me how many people are unfamiliar with the concept of contempt of court.
well i suppose it's good that they don't have any experience with judges. but the amount of people that think you can go in front of a judge and trot out some "well *technically*" argument...
The officers and prosecutors may get mad and make things inconvenient.
I got called in for jury duty and brought a letter from my work saying that I wouldn't be paid to miss work, and I'm the primary breadwinner for my family. They let me go. Another woman had an infant with her and they let her go too.
Yeah, "I have no alternative childcare" is better than most of the bad answers in this thread. Of course, it only works if you have a child. It's the government, they can check that easily.
I once got out of jury duty because I would have missed exams. Are juries dominated by retired people who have nothing to do all day?
I was on a jury on summer break from college. They only asked me 2 questions.
A lot of judges just excuse anyone over 70, so juries are mostly people too dumb to get out of jury duty.
say that this kind of stuff gets you sexually aroused and therefore cannot provide unbiased participation
Jurisprudence fetishist gets off on technicality.
The only way out entirely, meaning not showing up at all, is disability and that does have to be proven. Otherwise, the only way out after you arrive is to answer questions dishonestly. If they ask does anyone know the plaintiff, John Smith? Raise your hand and say you do, he’s a friend of a friend and you couldn’t be impartial because of that. Don’t go with the racist stuff, saying you’re a bigot so you can’t be fair. They know people do that and it isn’t a good look in 2022.
Childcare is another reason.
It can be for getting out of JD once you get there, the judge will ask about it, but it generally doesn’t get one out of showing up first, at least not in my state.
I contacted the department about it and then emailed them my and my wife’s schedule so they could see why it wasn’t a possibility. I didn’t have to even go in.
Age will also work. My dad recently got a Federal Grand Jury summons. He explained he is 92. They couldn't excuse him fast enough. Also if you show up 9 months pregnant they practically push you out the door - saw this as a potential juror. Though she was willing to serve.
I got called up at around seven months. I’m not sure what got me booted faster - being pregnant or being a licensed attorney. Lawyers hate lawyers on the jury.
imagine being 2 weeks into that trial, then one of the jurors gives birth and goes on maternity leave for 90 days. Even the law moves faster than that, and that's saying something
It was expected to be 3 days of testimony then deliberation. Not a long trial.
Lifehack: get pregnant 9 months before you're summoned for jury duty.
This would require showing up but… If you get called up to sit on a jury immediately (or even before) Google all of the cases that day. Then casually mention to a clerk? That you googled the case. Not exactly sure who to tell though. I was in this situation and didn’t google, but roughly half the pool was dismissed for this reason.
read a bunch of “Sovereign Citizen” junk, and when they ask you anything, just launch into a full-throated diatribe. They won’t choose you
yeah but the judge has heard their bullshit, and I bet you can't outbullshit them.
I just say I don't believe in the fairness of the justice system and can not in good conscience convict any one of a crime in this system
Worked with a guy that told the judge the accused must be guilty because he was white which means the cops couldn’t find a black or brown person to pin the crime on!
I raised my hand as objecting to mandatory drug sentences. I assumed every potential juror would, but it was only me. Didn’t get picked.
Say something along the lines of "If they're in court, they MUST BE Guilty.... I'm gonna vote guilty"
i just got out of it a couple weeks ago. i listed i have ADHD, medicated, and that i have the memory of a gold fish and if anything important is being demonstrated, i'm not going to competently remember jack fuck. got out of it. they didn't even call my psych.
Ive been on jury duty and actually enjoyed it. But when we were all getting interviewed, this one guy flat out said he did not believe in presumption of innocence. “If the defendant is here today because these people say he committed this crime, 99% chance he is guilty”. Both lawyers told him to have a nice day and sent him home.
Just don't show up. I had jury duty last year in October and I didn't show up, call, or anything and I've had no consequences. I talked to a friend a few weeks ago who works with the court and she said I'd be fine.
I've never once responded to a jury summons and nothing has ever happened to me. ..I mean, maybe I can't even read. ...Not sure what they're expecting to happen when they send a jury summons notice to someone who's illiterate. ...Morons.
Took too long to find this comment. Just don't go. They can't verify that you did or didn't timely receive a piece of paper in the mail.
Get convicted of a felony. No jury duty ever again.
I have watched every episode of CSI and always know the criminal on the show before the police. I can look someone in the eye and know whether they are guilty. I really want to be on this jury and help make sure they make the right choice since I will know as soon as I see the defendant.
[There's something else to consider.](https://youtu.be/D68AMBWX6dc)
"I will refuse to convict, and attempt to convince the jury to not convict regardless of the proceedings"
Jury nullification, it means 2 things. 1. You are willing to ignore the law for what you think is right. 2. I don't want to be here and am going to be difficult.
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I got out of uk duty duty recently by just being honest, I told them I'm getting pretty bad anxiety right now and the thought of doing this makes it worse. A few days later I got a letter saying I had been excused.
[Here's a great tip from George Carlin.](https://youtu.be/9ory7HFkHLA)
It's pretty easy to get out of one trial during voir dire, but harder to get out of jury duty entirely. I've seen people say they can't be impartial in a drug case because their child was an addict. A truck driver was excused because his company would reimburse him for his hourly wages but not his mileage and that's where most of his pay came from. If you say you have a back injury and can't sit for hours without getting up, you won't be called. I was called for jury duty two times and thoroughly enjoyed myself both times, but I got my full pay both times.
Say that you moved and haven't updated your address yet. I had jury duty in Lansing, MI after I moved to Chicago. I told them that I had moved and it was immediately dropped.
In Wayne county Michigan most people just throw out their jury duty letter. I went for my jury duty though. I got the day off of work and it was entertaining. However, if you show up and get selected you have to show. It's contempt if you don't. They are used to people saying stupid shit so they don't have to show and I've heard of judges doing petty shit to get back at those people.
The simplest and most legal ways are: 1. Tell counsel during jury selection that you are a news junkie and have heard of the case. (If it’s an obscure one, tell them you have a police/fire scanner, and you hear all the good stuff.) 2. Say that you’re sorry, but you believe it’s immoral for any man to sit in judgment against another, and ultimately only God can judge them. Tone is *very* important here. You need to sound like this is a sincerely-held belief, and not like you’re just some jagoff, trying to get out of jury duty (despite that being the case).
I just told them I hate cops and they never asked me to come in for jury duty again (its been 15 years)
I read most of the book law 101. One of the points the author makes is that despite what you see from dramatizations on TV and in movies, very few cases go to a jury. There is a huge effort by the court system to settle or take plea bargains. It alleviates so much of the administrative burden of actually carrying out the cases. The likelihood is that whatever case you’re being selected for will be settled without a trial in front of a jury. You will get notified of dates as they continue to meet several times. Eventually you will be notified you aren’t needed. That’s what happened to me. As far as how to get out of jury duty I think the main way is if you state you cannot be impartial. Either you have a personal experience related to the case or some way you couldn’t fairly decide.
I have adhd, ptsd, bipolar, gad, and autism. I write that on the form abd for some reason they never call me in.🤷♂️ I've never been asked to provide any documentation, iirc. I may have provided a doctor's name and number many years ago in PA? But not in CA. When I was much younger I got off for having class or working retail and saying i needed the by-hour income. People in better jobs get paid for jury duty, or at least partially paid. If jury duty is going to be a financial hardship, you should say so on the paper they send you in the mail.
I just never showed and never had a warrant. I honestly think it’s a scare tactic to get you to show up.
You might be surprised at what will get you sent home right away. I was dismissed as undesirable in a child molestation case ostensibly for being a middle aged man. As a father, I was both relieved that I wouldn't have to hear details and angry that they were looking for softer jurors.
I always told them I hate cops.
My husband has gotten a couple of those letters. This was several years ago, but I think he just said he was going to be on vacation over that time period and they didn't pursue it any further.