Getting out of jury duty in residency

[Trismegistus4]

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Also, I forgot to mention for pure interest's sake that I once (unintentionally) ignored a jury summons in med school. I got it in the mail, set it aside, then let it get buried under a stack of other papers and forgot about it, coming across it again and going "oh crap!" only after the summons date had passed. Nothing ever came of that one.

 

[Genore]

Also, I forgot to mention for pure interest's sake that I once (unintentionally) ignored a jury summons in med school. I got it in the mail, set it aside, then let it get buried under a stack of other papers and forgot about it, coming across it again and going "oh crap!" only after the summons date had passed. Nothing ever came of that one.

You were technically in contempt of court but the judge was probably nice enough to let it slide...that said, you could get a random find years from now as a result.

 

[rkaz]

If you have to sit for jury duty, does your residency program count that as 'vacation' time? Since we only have a few weeks of vacation, I'd like to use that to go cross-country to see my family, and wouldn't be thrilled if my precious vacation days were used up in this way. Just wondering.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Depends on the program. If it's just 1-2 days and your program has some sort of "sick day" policy, it can be rolled into that. If it's more than that, it may need to be vacation or your training will be extended at the end -- a potential problem if you plan a fellowship. It also depends on the field/RRC which all have different rules.

 

[Trismegistus4]

You were technically in contempt of court but the judge was probably nice enough to let it slide...that said, you could get a random find years from now as a result.

Theoretically what you're saying is true, but in reality, significant numbers of people summoned don't show up every day, and busy courts don't have the resources to go after them. Yes, you should never count on simply being able to dodge it, as yours may be the one-in-a-thousand case the judge decides to make an example of, but for every one of those, there are 999 others who suffer no consequences.

 

[Neuronix]

My jury duty summons have always been sent USPS third class. That is junk mail grade that is routinely discarded for any reason that it cannot be delivered. It is never forwarded. All you have to do is claim you were in the process of moving or otherwise never received the summons. My guess is the only way they know you ever receive one is that the threat on the post-card/letter is enough to compel most people to call the phone number provided to confirm receipt.

Source: One of my college jobs was USPS mail carrier.