Do you serve or do you do everything in your power to be excused?

I'd looooove to do jury duty. But over here it's pretty rare you will get picked. I remember my law teacher telling me something like 24 people are called but only 12 will be picked from that 24 to serve on the jury. Random! But yeah I'd find it totally fascinating.
However, I sometimes suffer from anxiety and if I think it would be likely to trigger it off, then I'd get a doctor's note.

My mother in law who is 42 has never been chosen, surprisingly I have been chosen twice this year. I have very bad anxiety and I know it will trigger it, because my anxiety is social anxiety, but I am going to go in and do my one day/one trial, I know they wont call me for a trial because I am pregnant and in Colorado it is considered a legal liability to have a pregnant woman serve.

LOL why, do they think you will be overly emotional or something? ;D

I've been called to jury duty twice, yo - both when I was in my twenties. The second time I could have refused because of the fact I'd done it a couple of years ago, but I like doing it, so I totally went again! No one else in my family has ever been chosen - it's so random!

Do everything in my power to get excused, mainly because I'm a full-time medical student and jury duty for any period of time would spell exam failure. Last year, I got summoned twice in the space of six months. The first time, I got my co-ordinator to write me a letter of excusion (is that a word? xD), which also stated that I was, and would continue to be, a full-time student for four years. That excused me. However, they summoned me again a few months later, indicating that they obviously had not read the letter closely enough, so I just faxed the letter through again, and got excused again. xD Dumbasses.

That's exactly my feeling. I can get excused easily enough because I work in healthcare anyway, and it's on the excusion list, and on the couple of occassions I've been called I've always asked to be excused. I'm in a pretty intense training programme, and every day I miss is lost experience (and lost time studying for exams). At this point I'm not prepared to compromise my training (or leave others at work to cover my on calls for me when we're already short staffed).

I actually got called and wound up getting chosen to serve for a murder trial. It was stressful but the experience was nice. Not the fact that we had to decide to put a man in jail for years. That was upsetting and I had nightmares about it for like two weeks afterward.

if I can get out of it I can, but only if I can do so truthfully. I got called in a few months ago and didn't have a valid excuse, so I had to go in. Pretty boring, both trials they had scheduled for that day got cancelled so I just wound up sitting in a room for 5 hours.

I got called this past year for it. I think they had like 50+ people there.
Maybe 12 (if that) got chosen. The rest of us were allowed to leave at noon, and weren't required to come back the next day.

The majority of jurors are just there for standby. (At least in Wisconsin.)

Our waiting area was a giant Auditorium type room, initially. We got a little speech and whatnot. Took MAYBE 15 minutes. No big deal at all.
Then we were allowed to go do whatever. There were a bunch of room inside the suite it was in. A reading room, cafeteria-like room.

They played movies and stuff.
If I hadn't found a desk in the reading room and passed out (it was 8am!) I most likely would have had an okay time.


Isn't there a way you can write in and say 'hey, I'm pregnant. I can't be sitting in a room like that for umpteen hours, I get uncomfortable/sick' ?

I've known people to get out of jury duty for a flu. Surely pregnancy could do it!

I actually WANT to serve. I am very sad I wont have a fair shot at serving, because I am sure they will dismiss me, and that makes me feel like I didnt do my duty, but hopefully the next time I go, I wont be pregnant.

Really?
I know a few people who served here and they all said it was one of the worst experiences they ever had lol!

Yes, because even if it is hell for me, and I hate every moment of it, I will know that I am helping uphold the rights of this country, and that is something I take very seriously.

I get excused from jury duty. The county I live in sends a summons in a mail with the week of serving, but you don't know when you're actually going to serve. For example, if the week starts on Monday, you have to call a hotline the Friday before to see if you have to serve on Monday. If not, you have to call back on Monday night to see if you have to serve on Tuesday -- it continues like that for the entire week. So in my case, I have to take an entire week off work because I MIGHT have to go to jury duty.

The first time I was summoned, I didn't have to go Monday or Tuesday, and I ended up oversleeping on Wednesday and missing it completely. I called the court and explained what happened, and the woman I spoke with was really understanding and she rescheduled it for me.

A few months later, I got another summons in the mail, and I wrote a letter saying I have really bad anxiety and that I didn't feel comfortable "performing my civic duty" at the time (but that I was currently receiving treatment) so they excused me.

It's funny you mention this. I got called for Jury duty last year, and I feel quite guilty about it. =\ I kept rescheduling it. It was just at BAD times. I was scheduled to do it right after I started a new job, so I asked to be rescheduled for a few months later. Well, then my hubby had his heart surgery and I needed to be home to take care of him (it was like several days after his surgery). I was then rescheduled again for the fall, but my hubby had just started his new job and was out of town, and I really had no one to take my daughter to school in the morning for me, so I called and apologized and asked to just be excused. I wouldn't have minded doing it, but this last year was just hell for my family.

My husband just got called into jury duty. He is asking to be excused. We do not have the time - nor do we have the money for him to miss a week of work!

The only time I got a notice, I was in college, so I didn't have to go. I haven't gotten one since.

I was selected for a Grand Jury. We met every Wednesday for about 9 weeks. Sitting in a small room with 5 other people was fun times. I wish I could do it again! lol. :)

I do everything in my power to try to get out of it. I don't have the time to be missing work or class. Money is tight nowadays and I can't miss work for the little money they give you a day. I think they should have a list of people who want to do jury duty. I certainly don't enjoy it.

Actually your boss has to pay you for the days you miss. Dont you think its your civic duty to show up and do your one day a year? Most jury duty is over in one day, and by being an American citizen and enjoying the rights you agreed to do your duty and be a part of a jury if chosen.

Wow, you guys HAVE to do it every year? That would actually probably really suck. How do you have enough cases for everyone to sit in on one?

Here, if the crime is a summary offence (punishable by up to 6 months in prison or a £5,000 fine), then the defendant is tried by three magistrates, who are 'upstanding members of the community' or some shit. We only have juries on indictable offences.

You are not called every year. You are simply put in the pool every year. Like I said my mother in law has never been called. My mom has been called once and she is also 40. You are just put in the pool not selected.

If they had to sequester (spelling) the jury, I would then be denied medical care, and legally they cannot do that, so they will dismiss me more then likely.

Not all jobs are required to pay you for being off for jury duty. Some of them are like oh you get paid for jury duty no money from us. I had a job that didn't pay me for being off but I got to keep my jury duty pay. Then there are some jobs you have to give them your jury duty pay to get compensation from your job for being off. It depends on the state and the job.

Lol. Nevermind. I just noticed your response after I hit reply. We really need an edit function!

You get paid for jury duty as well as getting paid by your work? Gosh, here, you get compensated if you lose out on money from work, but they don't pay you a wage or anything for doing jury service.