Getting out of jury duty and the full-time college student...

[JFSinIL]

Although he sent in a form stating that he would be living three hours away as a full-time college student, and requesting any jury duty be scheduled for next summer, ds just got a summons to show up for jury duty two weeks after school starts!

 

If it isn't one thing it is another.

 

Any fellow Illinois folks have any suggestions? Ds's school is on a 10-week quarter system and he just can't miss up to two weeks of class. His GPA falls and he looses the scholarships.

[athena1277]

Did the form he sent in have anything official from the college? Maybe they need something official that says he is enrolled full time at their school.

[MamaT]

It is not easy, at least around here. I ended up having to call the governor's office to get my son excused, and he was in Afghanistan serving in the Marine Corp!

[stripe]

When I was in college, I deferred jury duty until winter break. Everyone in the "pool" was either a teacher or a student, so it seemed.

[JFSinIL]

Looks like he can fill out a form on-line and ask for a deferral to the three week Christmas holiday. Welcome to being a grown-up, kid!

[Jeanne in MN]

I had to serve jury duty in college. I missed the whole first day of classes of a new quarter including a 3 hr night class which is a week's worth of classes. When the judge asked if we had any reason we felt we shouldn't be there, I explained I was a college student and would be missing my first day of classes, but he didn't let me go. I was in a week later for jury duty again and told the judge again, I was a college student. This time he let me go because the case was going to last about three weeks and it would be too much of a hardship.

 

Living three hours away is kind of a hardship, eh?! The problem is they go with your voter registration card and where you voted as to where you would serve jury duty. He'll just have to call and see what can be done.

[Ravin]

Here in Arizona, they have a 1-day appearance rule. The excuses that will get you out of showing up for 1 day are very limited, but once you're there, either they assign you to something that only takes 1 day, or they hear your excuses and you're most likely relieved if there's any kind of hardship--and half the time you call to find out what time to show up and they excuse you on the spot because they don't need as many people that day as they called, which is what happened to me the last time. (the time before that I used the "college student" excuse and only had the 1 day).

[MyThreeSons]

wow, we only get $10 a day and a parking pass. I recently narrowly missed being on a 3-month trial. I have no idea what we would have done with that situation.

 

I served a few weeks ago and we were paid $15 per day plus 10 cents per mile driven.

 

When I was in college, I was once subpoenaed to testify in a trial. I took the summons to show my prof why I might miss the final exam, and he said if I got called that day, it was tough luck -- no make up allowed. Thankfully, I was actually called on a day when I didn't have an exam. I was definitely prepared to appeal to the dean if necessary. (The prof was the head of the department.)

[Alyce]

She said she was to serve what would be the first week of classes. She too goes to school 3 hours away from us. There was a form to be filled out that would automatically get you excused if you met certain criteria (like medical issues) Dd did not meet any of them. They said if anyone had any other reason to be considered to be excused the could report Aug 11 at 2pm and the judge would hear them at that time. That's right in the middle of our vacation. Dd broke down and cried. We were panicked. Dh called and talked to the clerk that handles jury duty and she said just to write our situation on the card and go ahead and mail it in. She said she'd probably get excused but she couldn't guarantee it. We got the letter earlier this week that excused her from duty. My biggest advice to you would be to make a phone call to the court. Our thought on it was what harm could it do. And in our case it turned out to be just the right thing to do.

[joannqn]

wow, we only get $10 a day and a parking pass. I recently narrowly missed being on a 3-month trial. I have no idea what we would have done with that situation.

 

Same here. We get $10 a day and a bus ticket or parking pass. I was also called for a long trial recently. With four young children, one of whom was a breastfeeding 6 month old, I was really worried.

 

When I was in college, I was once subpoenaed to testify in a trial. I took the summons to show my prof why I might miss the final exam, and he said if I got called that day, it was tough luck -- no make up allowed. Thankfully, I was actually called on a day when I didn't have an exam. I was definitely prepared to appeal to the dean if necessary. (The prof was the head of the department.)

 

That was just messed up.