Jury Duty

[msminniemouse]

I just recieved a jury summons for State Grand Juror. There is a questionnare to be completed within 10 days, but there is no reporting date. It says that I will be notified of reporting date at a later notice. Has anyone ever been picked as State Grand Juror? How does this differ from Petite Juror or Grand Juror? Do you know how far down the road the court appearance would be? I have a trip scheduled in 5 weeks, and although there is a place to note request to reschedule, I don't have a jury appearance date listed yet and can't request rescheduling. I wish there was some way to get out of it, but it seems that is hard to do.
I also have 2 kids in elementary school, and although they go to afterschool care in the school, I do have to drive them to after school activities and to religious school some days, and if they got sick on one of the days I had to report to court, or if there is no school, I don't have backup care.

 

[Amlee]

Make a note of all of that in your questionair. If there isn't room attach it to the questionair.

While it wasn't state jury, I had plans to be out of town this time last year, when I was called. I called up the number on my card and explained what was going on. That is what they had me do. I would have loved to have done it though.

 

[RNMOM]

My BIL was a county grand juror and he served for several months. He was only required to call when there was a case that had to be presented "to the grand jury" to determine if it would then go to trial. I believe it is quite different from regular jury duty.

I beleive he was given notice ahead of time when he needed to report and it wasn't all that frequent.

 

[merrily]

When my coworker was called for Grand Jury duty she had to report two days per month for 1 year. It was always the same days I believe the 3rd Thurs and Fri of the month. Made it easy for planning purposes.

 

[Mischa]

My DH got one of those questionaires when we got home from our trip last week. Not sure when it arrived but he completed it as soon as we got back and sent it back.

 

[froglady]

When I lived in RI, Grand Jury was for one year- but not continous. Petit Jury was for a two week period, but you could serve longer if you case took longer to try.

Grand Jury = pretrial "Grand" because there are more people called up to serve, because it is for a whole year

Petit Jury = actual trial 12 jurors plus alternates per trial

AFAIK, it is the same for Florida. I was called for jury duty twice in FL, but both times I was bfing a newborn. I served jury duty in RI decades ago; at that time, I was the youngest juror to ever serve, because they had just lowered the voting age.

 

[shelly3girls]

Although not state, I did serve on county grand jury. In our county they pick 23 grand jurors even though they only need a much smaller number (13 I think but cannot remember). We had to go once a week fo 18 weeks. If you had a vacation planned then you just called out or notified them in advance. As long as you made your best effort to be there when required they were actually very understanding if you had to miss. Unlike regular jury duty, you see anywhere from 15-25 cases in a day so there is no harm in missing a day. On days when I had to leave early for my kids it was no big deal. The biggest problem was missing in the first couple of weeks. The lawyers need to read all of the laws that you will decide on so if you miss it you need to listen to the tapes.

ETA: in NJ is was almost impossible to get out of it. People tried based on income, self employed, vacations, childcare and the judge did not really care. If you have a medical reason then you had to show proof. You cannot protest based on any beliefs b/c you see so many different cases you could not really be biased against all of them. Also there are no lawyers to ask you questions just the judge. Basically if the computer picked your number you were stuck.

 

[msminniemouse]

Although not state, I did serve on county grand jury. In our county they pick 23 grand jurors even though they only need a much smaller number (13 I think but cannot remember). We had to go once a week fo 18 weeks. If you had a vacation planned then you just called out or notified them in advance. As long as you made your best effort to be there when required they were actually very understanding if you had to miss. Unlike regular jury duty, you see anywhere from 15-25 cases in a day so there is no harm in missing a day. On days when I had to leave early for my kids it was no big deal. The biggest problem was missing in the first couple of weeks. The lawyers need to read all of the laws that you will decide on so if you miss it you need to listen to the tapes.

ETA: in NJ is was almost impossible to get out of it. People tried based on income, self employed, vacations, childcare and the judge did not really care. If you have a medical reason then you had to show proof. You cannot protest based on any beliefs b/c you see so many different cases you could not really be biased against all of them. Also there are no lawyers to ask you questions just the judge. Basically if the computer picked your number you were stuck.

I am from NJ too. So I guess I am stuck.
Hopefully, if I do have to go, the judge will be lenient as far as vacation and leaving for my kids. I am wondering if I should notify them on the questionnaire about the vacation date now in advance, or just wait until I am notified of the date I am supposed to appear.

 

[golfgal]

Typically being on a grand jury is easier then being on a 'regular' jury. You usually have a set day of the week/month to go in and then only if they have cases. Chances are in NJ you will always have a case. A friend served on the Grand Jury in our old county and often wouldn't have any cases for months. Their term was 3 years but then again, she probably heard 6-7 cases in that time. Usually it is a 9-4 type schedule, at least around here.

 

[shelly3girls]

I am from NJ too. So I guess I am stuck.
Hopefully, if I do have to go, the judge will be lenient as far as vacation and leaving for my kids. I am wondering if I should notify them on the questionnaire about the vacation date now in advance, or just wait until I am notified of the date I am supposed to appear.

Well, to get the 23 they had over 60 people show up. They entered all the names into a computer and it randomly selected 23. So just b/c you are called does not mean you will definitely be assigned. I thought it was going to be horrible. Honestly, it was boring and depressing at times but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Being assigned 18 weeks they told me it was no big deal if I had to miss a couple.

 

[msminniemouse]

Well, to get the 23 they had over 60 people show up. They entered all the names into a computer and it randomly selected 23. So just b/c you are called does not mean you will definitely be assigned. I thought it was going to be horrible. Honestly, it was boring and depressing at times but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Being assigned 18 weeks they told me it was no big deal if I had to miss a couple.

Do you remember what the hours were in NJ? Was it 9-4 or 9-5?

 

[shelly3girls]

For the county grand jury we had court hours 9-5 so we were supposed to be there around 8:30am. We were never there until 5. Once in a while we stayed until 4 but sometimes were done by 2. A couple times we even had a half day.

 

[Disneymaddness]

I served on Grand Jury in NJ. Mine was every Friday for 18 weeks and we were allowed to miss 2. The hours were 9-4 but alot of times we were done by 3. We got paid $5.00/day! Good thing parking was free!

 

[aprilgail2]

When my coworker was called for Grand Jury duty she had to report two days per month for 1 year. It was always the same days I believe the 3rd Thurs and Fri of the month. Made it easy for planning purposes.

Holy crap- a YEAR??? I would rather do a week straight than to have to worry about going a few days every month. I have not been called in years-the last time I was called I was on FMLA from work so they let me out of it since I was already out of work caring for a sick family memeber so I couldn't possibly leave them to go do jury duty if I couldn't even leave them to go to work!
I wouldn't so much mind getting called if they would send me to the courthouse closest to me (10 minutes) but every darn time I get called I get sent out to riverhead which is about an hour away.
I like nice quick jury duties with lots of breaks, I can't really sit still to long and if I am sitting for over an hour my mind starts to wander and I lose track of what the heck they are talking about-I swear if I was a kid I would be classified as ADD- I can look at them talking and in my head I am thinking about what I am doingthe next day or whats for dinner-their mouths are moving but my head is telling me about pizza or going to the movies LOL.
Good luck getting it postponed OP- I am sure its different in NJ but here in NY many people just toss the summons in the trash if its a date they can't make it and wait for the next one to come along in a few months.