How do you get out of jury duty if you were summoned?

okay, but the thing is…she has not legit reason for not being able to go. She just doesn’t want to. Can she just make up a reason?

no*

My dad’s doctor told him that he just throws the paper away and if they ever said anything, to just say he never received the paper… I’ve never tried that, but my dad does it, they don’t say anything. But she should wait and see if she’s going to get dismissed

What I did was just go…and fill out all the papers… when were taken upstairs to get a briefing & they asked if anyone had issues with participating, I just said I was going through my divorce…and my mind was on anything but that case…if they wanted to get someone that was less bias and more considerate to the relevance of the case they would be better off doing do! So I was thanked very nicely for being honest & patient and was dismissed! :P I was really going through my divorce so I wasnt lying either! :P WIN WIN!

She said she is just going to go to her doctor, and get him to write her an excuse note. She has a lot of leg/back pain…and has a lot of appointments, and therapy to go to.

Yeah, that will definitely work. My dad’s disabled, so he can’t do it. His doctor was annoyed that they were always sending my dad summons..

lol….okay…thanks. :)

You just tell them that you know the people that are involved like the person being prosecuted or whatever. I think you get a fine if you dont go, my mum has been a few times.

The rules are different places; in fact, the three different Texas counties I lived in all did jury duty differently.

In general they don’t want people on juries who don’t want to be there. They would rather have jurors who don’t resent having to serve. Only if they can’t find enough jurors do they use reluctant ones. When filling out your eligibility questionnaire there is typically a place where you can indicate that you don’t wish to serve. Just indicating that you prefer not to serve will usually get you out. College students and people who have to care for small children do not have to serve. If you are a college instructor this does not get you out of jury duty but it does allow you to postpone it if serving would interfere with your teaching. If serving will cause excessive financial hardship this may be enough to be dismissed or at least postponed but not always.

If you make it to the voir dire you will be asked questions to determine if you can be an impartial juror. If you seem overly sympathetic to the prosecution or the defense you will be eliminated. A comment like “If the police arrested him than chances are he’s guilty” is true but will not go over very well with the defense. “I never really trusted the police very much” likewise will not go over well with the prosecution. Lawyers also do not want strongly opinionated people on juries, people who are not intelligent enough to understand the issues or who are too intelligent to be manipulated by lawyers’ arguments. If you appear to belong to any of these categories than you won’t serve. Do remember that when answering questions in the Voir Dire that you are under oath and if you lie you can be arrested for perjury so stick to the truth.

While I always wanted to get out of jury duty when I was young now I have the opposite problem. I’d like to serve on a jury for the experience and a change of pace from work but they never pick me.