Anyone ever get screwed by jury duty?

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novawildcat

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WTF!!!!!!!! I was just about to start filling in AMCAS for this year's cycle after studying my ass off for the MCAT, and with my ****ty luck, I get picked for jury duty. This could COMPLETELY mess me up for the entire application cycle this year. If the trial lasts for say 3-5 months, I would miss all the interviews etc. and would then have to wait an entire year before applying again. Has this ever happened to another non trad here? Were you able to get out of it?
 
WTF!!!!!!!! I was just about to start filling in AMCAS for this year's cycle after studying my ass off for the MCAT, and with my ****ty luck, I get picked for jury duty. This could COMPLETELY mess me up for the entire application cycle this year. If the trial lasts for say 3-5 months, I would miss all the interviews etc. and would then have to wait an entire year before applying again. Has this ever happened to another non trad here? Were you able to get out of it?
Yes. Tell them you have concerns about your ability to be impartial. Not that they wanted me anyway once they found out I was a grad student. Plus, I actually got into an argument with the prosecutor about what the meaning of "possible" is. :meanie:
 
That completely stinks.

Truthfully, I am saving my contributions to civic responsibility until I am established in my career or in medical school. Working full time and going to school allows my mind the excuse to pitch my summons into the trash. I have not responded once to them and so far I have evaded arrest. I am betting that no one will be apprehended for not responding to jury duty.

That is not meant to piss you off. Just as a contribution to anyone who might read this and have to make the same decision.

Sorry you got the bad break though.
 
I got called once. I actually answered one of the questions "Oh, yes, I know he's guilty. Otherwise the cops wouldn't have arrested him."

That coupled with my husband being a cop got me immediately dismissed. :laugh:
 
Don't worry about it!

The chances of you getting picked to sit on the jury are small and the chances of being put on a long trial are slim to none, so I wouldn't worry about it interfering with your apps at all. Go in and tell them that you have family in the FBI and an uncle that is a judge. That should get you eliminated anyways.

I've been once and sat around the court house for about 3 hours only to be sent home along with just about everyone. It was a horrible waste of the day, and I totally lost money in the deal. It sucks, but what can you do?

Look at it this way, once you are a physician, you get out of jury duty very easilly. So you may never have to suffer thru this again!
 
Don't worry about it!

The chances of you getting picked to sit on the jury are small and the chances of being put on a long trial are slim to none, so I wouldn't worry about it interfering with your apps at all.

Different areas may handle this differently, but I would agree with the second part of this more than the first (unless you employ the strategies previously suggested). I was called not too long ago and they used a pooled jury approach. This meant most of the people who showed up were going to end up on some jury, but the VAST majority were one day minor trials.

I would go and try to reasonably avoid getting picked. If you are selected, it will likely be over in a day. Another bonus, since I was selected I don't have to serve again for a year.
 
jury duty is really usually not too bad. it has gotten almost impossible in CA to get out of it, and even to avoid getting picked when you report. however, most trials only last 3-4 days. I was on a jury last year - started tuesday and delivered verdict on Monday. as for working, after the reporting day, each day didn't start until 10:30 and ended at 4:30, so I still got to spend 4-5 hours in my office. we actually had a witness cancellation for friday, and I got to squeeze in a red-eye trip to nyc that I was annoyed about missing. all-in-all, it effectively took up hardly any time at all and was kind of fun. alt., you can probably request a postponement of a few months (but probably can only do this a limited no. of times)
 
My husband got picked for a criminal trial once. He was giving me some IM injections at the time. One day, he did not come home. I called the judge and I was told all jurors were sequestered atleast for 2 days. I had no one to give me a shot. Urgentcare, nowcare etc. would not touch me because they were afraid of liability even though the medication is known to be perfectly safe. I finally ended up teaching my husband's aunt how to do it and have her do it at 11 PM.

While civic duty is important, I do think family should come first. While the judge's office secretary kept saying they will find away for me to get my shot, they did nothing.
 
That definitely sucks, but as everyone else has pointed out, you have only a small chance (25%) of getting picked for a jury, and even then the chances of getting put on a case longer than a few days is extremely slim. If it comes down to it, you can always b.s. your way out of it, or perhaps contact the court and explain your situation to them. I've heard of times that certain courts have made exceptions for people where jury duty would have a major impact on work/school.

I've been called up for jury duty a few times now, but I'm an active volunteer EMT in New Jersey, and by law we are automatically exempt from it.

Good luck, and don't take no for an answer! :meanie:
 
Calm down!!! Breathe..... I just had jury duty last week. Its not that big of a deal. If anything, it will provide you with a full day of doing nothing (its a whole day of waiting...) and ample study time.

(1) The VAST majority of people won't actually get selected.
(2) MOST trials are one day or less. Mine was 2 hours on the afternoon of my jury duty day.
(3) They say the AVERAGE trial is 3-4 days because most are less than one day of service and the RARE longer ones drive up the average.

Think of all of the millions of trials out there ...all day...every day... most are done in less than a few hours. Don't believe everything you see on TV. The multi-day trials are EXTREMELY rare. I can just about guarantee you that you will sit (if you are chosen at all) on some really lame civil or very minor criminal trial that lasts one afternoon at the most. You will be bored to tears and then you will go home.

Mine was about some ex-boyfriend that called and threatened to get his girlfriend fired from her work. Yes that is it. She was pissed at him so she got back at him by having him arrested for threatening her. It took all of 2 hours. Those types of things are WAY WAY WAY more common than the multi-day murder type trials.

IF you get selected, which is unlikely, it will probably be some boring thing that takes you less than a full day at the courthouse. The stories of long drawn out jury duties are not the norm. They are rare.
 
If the trial lasts for say 3-5 months, I would miss all the interviews etc.

As other people here have said, don't worry. Unless you get chosen for another OJ trial, you're not going to be busy for 3-5 months.

I was on a jury a few years ago for a trial that lasted two weeks, and that was a rare long trial. The vast majority only last a day or a couple/few days.

Depending on your state's rules (they all do it differently), here's also a good chance that you'll sit and wait for a day, but not get called to a trial. Or get called to a trial, but not chosen for the jury. Or check in from home and be told they don't even need you to come in that day.

When you do go, a judge will ask you if there's any reason the trial would be an undue hardship. If it does happen to be a long trial (but it won't!), you can explain your circumstances and the judge would probably reassign you to the pool for a different case.

----

All that said, I'm going to offer some different advice than most of the people in this thread: don't try to get out of jury duty. Treat it as your responsibility, and take it seriously. Juries serve a crucial role in our legal system, and it depends on people who are willing to do their civic duty. Show up, be honest in answering the questions, and let the system work the way it's supposed to. Imagine that you were involved in a jury trial, either civil or criminal, on either side - and think about how important it would be to you that your jury was made up of people who believed in what they were there for, who were willing to be honest, openminded, and fair, who weren't just sitting there because they weren't able to get out of it.

Medicine is supposed to be about service, and we're supposed to be in it to help people. "I want to be a doctor because..." Think about how that relates to jury duty, and then think about whether you want to try to get out of serving. (And maybe you will be lucky enough to be chosen, and you'll come away with an experience to talk about in your interviews!)

----

[Steps off sopabox, takes a deep breath.] Hi everybody. Nice little rant for my first post to SDN, huh? I'll try to be good now.

And I'd be interested in hearing Law2Doc's take on this.
 
Federal or state summons? I get summoned for Federal jury duty, but due to my volunteer experience I opted out. There were instructions on the back of the form on who qualified for opting out. Perhaps you've already given back to society?
 
Last time I had a jury summons, there was an area to check that I was a student. Is that an option? I checked the box, sent it back and haven't heard anything since.
 
All states are different. My state, Colorado, doesn't let you opt out if you are a student. It does, however, let you postpone ONCE for any reason at all. Read the fine print on your summons, and it will probably tell you your state's rules.

Professors, by law, have to let you make up work and cannot take points off for missed class due to jury duty. Anytime one of my students has jury duty, I have to let them make everything up (and give them extra time as needed)otherwise it would be my a$$ in trouble with the school. So, if your profs ever tries to give you problems about missing for jury duty, look up your school's regs before accepting the missed points.
 
yeah, relax....I had it twice. the 1st time I lost a day's work. the 2nd I told the judge I am taking the mcat. (it was the same week) so he let me off. or you could stand up in the middle of the court room and start screaming "guilty, fry him!" during jury selection.
 
I got selected for jury duty about 3 months after my 18th birthday. Since I was a student, I postponed it for three months (the maximum) for winter vacation. It completely went over my head that it was the week of Christmas, and when I called in to check, it said, "Thank you for serving..."

Moral of the story - pick the week of a major holiday.

Anyway, my grandmother loves jury duty. Do they have a volunteer option or something?
 
Geez, guys, I know first hand that jury duty's a drag, but I hope none of you who are complaining ever find yourself as a defendant in some trial. There is no reason a person should postpone jury duty. You're a student? Make up the work. Show me one professor who won't let you do that. You work for a living? They won't fire you. They can't. Do it, get it over with, and get back to your life. The chances of being on a jury that's going to serve more than a few days or being sequestered are so low, it's not even worth consideration. Juries are the backbone of the judicial process. If everyone ditched their duty, then we'd seriously have to revamp our court system, wouldn't we? We need intelligent, fair-minded people to serve on juries so that the guilty go to jail and the innocent are vindicated.
 
I think the OP is getting way ahead of himself/herself. It is HIGHLY unlikely that you will be selected as a juror on a 3 month-long case (ala Scot Peterson). The cases that last that long tend to be the highly publicized cases, which are few and far between. If you are so unfortuate (or fortunate), med schools don't start interviewing until Sept/Oct so you'll be fine and then you can write a book about this highly publicized case that lasted 3 months and get a nice book advance.

Truthfully, this whole discussion is silly. You should just respond to your jury duty summons and show up/call in that morning, where more likely than not you will not be selected and/or you will be selected for a 1-5 day trial. It's not that big of a deal. I have been called to jury duty about 5 times in my life and have never had it interrupt my life for more than 2-3 days.
 
My friend wore a t-shirt that had "HANG THEM ALL, LET GOD SORT THEM OUT" written on the front. His number was pulled and he was immediatly excused.
 
(1) The VAST majority of people won't actually get selected.
(2) MOST trials are one day or less. Mine was 2 hours on the afternoon of my jury duty day.
(3) They say the AVERAGE trial is 3-4 days because most are less than one day of service and the RARE longer ones drive up the average.

Think of all of the millions of trials out there ...all day...every day... most are done in less than a few hours. Don't believe everything you see on TV. The multi-day trials are EXTREMELY rare.

Your advice is very state/locality dependant. Actually, in a lot of states, you are on jury duty for multiple days whether you ever get selected or not. You sit in a room and wait to get called. If you don't get on a jury, you go back to that room to wait. The last time I had jury duty I served on multiple trials on multiple days before my service was up. So while multi-day trials are rare, multi-day jury duty in fact isn't.
 
My friend wore a t-shirt that had "HANG THEM ALL, LET GOD SORT THEM OUT" written on the front. His number was pulled and he was immediatly excused.

Careful with this kind of stunt. Lots of judges are happy to throw people in jail for contempt for overtly attempting to thwart jury duty in this way.
 
Careful with this kind of stunt. Lots of judges are happy to throw people in jail for contempt for overtly attempting to thwart jury duty in this way.

Some judges sue a poor immigrant family for $54 million for losing his pants.






He should be disbarred (judges are still lawyers right?) and forced to work for the family he's suing for the rest of his life.
 
WTF!!!!!!!! I was just about to start filling in AMCAS for this year's cycle after studying my ass off for the MCAT, and with my ****ty luck, I get picked for jury duty. This could COMPLETELY mess me up for the entire application cycle this year. If the trial lasts for say 3-5 months, I would miss all the interviews etc. and would then have to wait an entire year before applying again. Has this ever happened to another non trad here? Were you able to get out of it?

As I was studying for USMLE Step I (had two weeks to take the test and begin my fellowship), I was called for Federal Grand Jury Duty. At first, I thought about the timing for about 2 minutes and then I remembered that being asked to serve on a jury is one of the privileges of being an American. This privilege was one that my father (an immigrant to the US) fought for so that he and his children could have. I also thought of the person whose life would be affected by my service and I also thought about the premium my parents had placed on leaving the respective countries of their birth to come here.

I submitted my paperwork and was promptly dismissed because as the judge put it "my service would place an undue hardship on my career". In my state, Virginia, I have not been called again. If I am called, I will report and serve if needed. Compared to the benefits that I, as a daugher of immigrants have received, very small price to pay.

It wasn't a matter of "getting out" of something, it was a matter of doing my duty as a citizen of this country and so what if it's a little "inconvenient" for my timing. I "sucked it up" and report as instructed. In the end, I still took USMLE Step I as scheduled, I still received my fellowship and I was not "screwed" by anything. I simply filled out the paperwork and followed instructions. Small price for me to pay for the benefits of being a resident of the Commonwealth.
 
I've got no problem serving - the only time I was picked, however, was back when I was an undergraduate and was living out of state. These days, however, I doubt that I would be selected, as (1) the attorney's I know prefer to work with human clay, and (2) I teach logic, including logical fallacies like "false cause."
 
As I was studying for USMLE Step I (had two weeks to take the test and begin my fellowship), I was called for Federal Grand Jury Duty. At first, I thought about the timing for about 2 minutes and then I remembered that being asked to serve on a jury is one of the privileges of being an American. This privilege was one that my father (an immigrant to the US) fought for so that he and his children could have. I also thought of the person whose life would be affected by my service and I also thought about the premium my parents had placed on leaving the respective countries of their birth to come here.

I submitted my paperwork and was promptly dismissed because as the judge put it "my service would place an undue hardship on my career". In my state, Virginia, I have not been called again. If I am called, I will report and serve if needed. Compared to the benefits that I, as a daugher of immigrants have received, very small price to pay.

It wasn't a matter of "getting out" of something, it was a matter of doing my duty as a citizen of this country and so what if it's a little "inconvenient" for my timing. I "sucked it up" and report as instructed. In the end, I still took USMLE Step I as scheduled, I still received my fellowship and I was not "screwed" by anything. I simply filled out the paperwork and followed instructions. Small price for me to pay for the benefits of being a resident of the Commonwealth.


You know what....you're absolutely right. Now i feel slimey for my post. But you're right. It's a privaledge to be in a country that has a jury system. I am going down to the court house and register for jury duty. I've got a month of just studying for the MCAT before I move to Boston. Thanks for the post.
 
I got picked for a grand jury and apparently didn't get my summons so I got the "red" letter. They rescheduled my date for December, so I guess I'll be serving on a grand jury in December sometime.
 
I got picked for a grand jury and apparently didn't get my summons so I got the "red" letter. They rescheduled my date for December, so I guess I'll be serving on a grand jury in December sometime.

Grand juries are cooler because in most jurisdictions you are allowed to ask the witnesses additional questions if you choose, not just watch passively.
 
I just don't want to get stuck if I have an interview offer or sthg 🙂

Or in general if it's just a long trial.

On the bright side, I don't live in a county like Cook County so a grand jury trial here is probably going to be fast.
 
When I worked I always wanted to get picked for jury duty because my employer would pay us, and it'd be a nice break from my boring job. Of course, they probably wouldn't pick me because of my law degree, but still ... Anyway, I never got called until after I moved here to start school. They've actually called me twice since then, and I keep on sending in their form stating that I no longer live in the county.
 
I got called once. I actually answered one of the questions "Oh, yes, I know he's guilty. Otherwise the cops wouldn't have arrested him."

That coupled with my husband being a cop got me immediately dismissed. :laugh:

Wow, I hope you don't actually think that. But, yeah, if so, I'm glad you're not on any jury. 😱
 
When I worked I always wanted to get picked for jury duty because my employer would pay us, and it'd be a nice break from my boring job. Of course, they probably wouldn't pick me because of my law degree, but still ... Anyway, I never got called until after I moved here to start school. They've actually called me twice since then, and I keep on sending in their form stating that I no longer live in the county.

I *wish* I could get the boss to pay for jury duty, but I'm self-employed.
 
I just had to drop a class which will set me back a semester because I was called for jury duty for the ENTIRE month of July. Go figure. I submitted a request for excuse as instructed, but the response didn't arrive in time for me to know prior to my drop date. I still haven't heard from them.
 
WTF!!!!!!!! I was just about to start filling in AMCAS for this year's cycle after studying my ass off for the MCAT, and with my ****ty luck, I get picked for jury duty. This could COMPLETELY mess me up for the entire application cycle this year. If the trial lasts for say 3-5 months, I would miss all the interviews etc. and would then have to wait an entire year before applying again. Has this ever happened to another non trad here? Were you able to get out of it?
Well, sort of. I got the letter, and I threw it away. Then some months later, I received another letter and I threw that away, then another letter and I threw that one away. Then finally, I received yet another letter in red bold ink, that said something about a warrant for my arrest or something and I threw that away. It's been years now and I haven't heard anything else on the matter. :meanie:
 
Well, sort of. I got the letter, and I threw it away. Then some months later, I received another letter and I threw that away, then another letter and I threw that one away. Then finally, I received yet another letter in red bold ink, that said something about a warrant for my arrest or something and I threw that away. It's been years now and I haven't heard anything else on the matter. :meanie:

Be careful because you can have your driver's license revoked and not know it.
 
Be careful because you can have your driver's license revoked and not know it.

Agreed. It wasn't a letter it was a summons. You really want to clear up stuff like that. Otherwise the next time you get pulled over for a traffic violation and they run your driver's license you could be in for a rude surprise.
 
Be careful because you can have your driver's license revoked and not know it.

Agreed. It wasn't a letter it was a summons. You really want to clear up stuff like that. Otherwise the next time you get pulled over for a traffic violation and they run your driver's license you could be in for a rude surprise.
Thanks for your concern, I realize the risk involved, and took my chances, accordingly. I have since renewed my driver's license, and have talked my way out of a traffic ticket for making a u-turn, lol. 😳

It did get my attention, when a local judge ordered people who didn't show up for jury duty to go to jail. However, these people are not going to waste my time. For me, the pros far outweigh the cons where this issue is concerned, they were clearly trying to infringe upon my civil liberties. The court has wisely left me alone, and we are all blissfully happy, lol. 🙂
 
Thanks for your concern, I realize the risk involved, and took my chances, accordingly. I have since renewed my driver's license, and have talked my way out of a traffic ticket for making a u-turn, lol. 😳

It did get my attention, when a local judge ordered people who didn't show up for jury duty to go to jail. However, these people are not going to waste my time. For me, the pros far outweigh the cons where this issue is concerned, they were clearly trying to infringe upon my civil liberties. The court has wisely left me alone, and we are all blissfully happy, lol. 🙂

That's cool. In my county, since there's not much action besides cow-tipping and drag-racing, they go after those that disregard jury duty.
 
That's cool. In my county, since there's not much action besides cow-tipping and drag-racing, they go after those that disregard jury duty.

:laugh:
Ah man. In SF if you want to get pulled over by the cops for a traffic violation you have to call them ahead of time to meet you where you plan on committing the infraction. You can flat out smoke a doobie on the street butt naked and the cops won't even give you a 2nd look.
 
:laugh:
Ah man. In SF if you want to get pulled over by the cops for a traffic violation you have to call them ahead of time to meet you where you plan on committing the infraction. You can flat out smoke a doobie on the street butt naked and the cops won't even give you a 2nd look.

Yeah, I live in rural IL. Not much going on here. I've been pulled over a few times for rolling thru a stop sign but never given a ticket. Cops are nice here.
 
When my mom died my dad just sort of stopped opening mail. It has been 7 years since her passing, and he still only opens mail once every few months. The last time I was summoned my dad didn't give it to me until months after the report date (it was mailed to his house for some reason). I never called anyone. Nothing ever happened.

Also, my mom has been issued jury duty twice, posthumously. The first time we had to mark a deceased box and sent in the form. The second one just went in the trash.
 
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