<p>According to the website below, you could specify the date you wish to perform your postponed jury duty, so a student need not worry about serving in the middle of summer or of the school year:</p>
<p>
[quote]
POSTPONING
TRIAL JUROR
SERVICE
[/quote]
</p>
<p>[....]</p>
<p>
[quote]
Step 2: In the six blue boxes provided, write in the date to which you wish to postpone your service as follows: "MMDDYY" where MM is the two-digit month number, (containing leading zeros if necessary), DD is the two-digit date number, (containing leading zeros if necessary), and YY is the two-digit year, (containing leading zeros if necessary). Example: If you want to postpone to the fictional date of January 23, 1945, you would write the following in the blue boxes: 012345. You are not required to give a reason for requesting a postponement.
<p>I also was recently asked to serve during the summer. My first thought was that I was lucky to be called during the summer for the same reasons as your own. I ended up sitting in a room with other potential jurors for perhaps 3 hours. Everyone was dismissed b/c all cases were settled before trial that day.</p>
<p>Just editing the post to add that I would never have thought of picking out the week of a holiday.</p>
<p>marite, This is very handy for anyone attending school in Ma.. According to this, one could pick out one day- ie: the day after their last final exam, or a day during the summer months (I don't know how they would communicate with a student who resides oos during the summer though, perhaps one has to call them a day or 2 before, about serving).</p>
<p>When I was a student in CA & when I was student in OR (in the 70s & 80s), I received a notice to report for jury duty. Fortunately/unfortunately, the date I was supposed to report was after I graduated & would have left the state for good. I don't know whether they have OOS residents serve as jurors or not--I was a HI resident the entire time. I was excused both times because I was not going to be in the state & not returning. None of my classmates mentioned serving as jurors, so I don't know what the laws are about OOS citizens serving as jurors.</p>
<p>rdkrn, I started a thread on this same topic back in January ("Jury duty in state where you attend college?") when my son who is also a student in Boston was called to jury duty. I feel as strongly as you that a college student cannot afford to miss class or exams. I also believe that one should serve jury duty only in the state where s/he is a registered voter, a licensed driver, and a state taxpayer. We advised him to return his postcard indicating that he would serve on the Monday after final exams end this May. Sure enough, two weeks after sending back the postcard, he received notification that he is to report that Monday. It creates other complications because he has to move out of the dorm after finals end yet has to remain in Boston to serve but he hopes to camp out in his frat house during that time.</p>
<p>Good tip--will be sure to advise our kid to indicate a similar date if they're given notice to serve for jury duty. Glad your son was able to be accommodated.</p>
<p>worrywart, It is a pain, but at least he does not need to travel back to Ma., and you do not need to pay for a hotel for him to serve. If every kid did this though, I would bet that you would no longer be able to pick the date. He is lucky to be able to serve this way.</p>
<p>Other dates that could be chosen are in the week before a term begins, during a planned school break, etc. Schools end & begin at different times, so it could work out--nothing to lose by trying.</p>
<p>Marite--does MA have the same kind of system like we do in CA, where a prospective juror is "open season" for one day--and if she isn't called onto a jury, she is excused? Before this system, we prospective jurors were on call for a week.</p>
<p>In MA, we have one day or one trial. Then we are exempt for the next three years. I reported to jury duty one day, and was excused after the jury was empanelled, around 1pm. Three years later, I reported to jury duty again, and was made an alternate. I spent much of the afternoon twiddling my thumbs in a room while the regular jurors deliberated. I do know of others who've had to serve longer because the trial dragged on. Mine was a drunk driving incident.</p>
<p>I just received a summons today for June 14th. I am graduating and leaving the state on May 14th. I have accepted a job in Boston, but it won't start until August. I'd like to schedule it right before I start working, but I don't know when my exact start date is yet.</p>
<p>"But when you postpone you have no way of knowing when the next assignment will be."</p>
<p>It clearly says on the card that you can pick the day you'd like to serve if you choose to postpoine.</p>
<p>Just want to add along with some previous posters that although it is a pain, it is essential for citizens to serve. I know that it is great sport to try to get out of jury duty. Long ago, I was a prosecutor in NYC. When I was at a family "get together," a bunch of the relatives sat around complaining that people who commit crimes are never convicted. I then asked, "when was the last time that YOU served on jury duty?" Silence. We never had the discussion again. If we want juries to be truly representative cross-sections, we all have to serve.</p>
<p>He was found guilty and his license revoked. Poor guy, he was a construction worker and needed to drive his pick-up truck. He had tears in his eyes when the verdict was read.</p>
<p>When my dad was in charge of the jury pool, the 1st thing he'd tell prosective jurors is that he made his wife serve on a jury--he got very few folks trying to get out after that. I found it a privilege to serve on the jury--it was a very enlightening experience to serve after having practiced law for years.
Drunk drivers often don't plead, especially when the stakes are high & if it's a repeat conviction. In our state, you're not entitled to a jury trial, it's just a bench trial & they often do go to trial because the defendant & his attorney often feel there's not much to lose (tho sometimes they're wrong & the sentence is greater than what the prosecutor offered during the plea bargaining). It's always sad--regret too late.</p>
<p>It is sad to see how many lives are devastated by drunken driving. I always tell folks that while taxis are expensive, lawyers & lost lives cost a LOT more!</p>
<p>Actually, I felt sorry for him. He claimed to have had only one beer, and he was probably truthful. But he'd run a red light and got tailed by a police car that did not turn on its light or siren. He got into his street and tried to park in front of his house, never realizing of course that the police car was right behind him because of the difference in the height of their cars. He backed up and banged into the police car, breaking the headlight. At that point, the policeman came out and arrested him. I suspect that the policeman, being young, was an eager beaver and had to account for the broken light. He did not administer a breathalyzer but made the man, who has a slightly game leg that acts up at times of stress (so he claimed) walk a straight line, which he could not quite do. He also made him recite the alphabet. The man claimed he was made to recite it backward, which the policeman denied. I was torn. So, obviously were the real jurors, who spent the whole afternoon deliberating. In the end, they voted to convict; I was not so sure I would have.</p>
<p>Actually, I felt sorry for him. He claimed to have had only one beer after having put in a ten hours day renovating a house, and he was probably truthful. But he'd run a red light and that's why he got tailed by a police car that did not turn on its light or siren (that actually was on a slow weekend, and he is by no means the only MA driver to do so; according to a police survey, 39% of MA drivers run red lights). He got into his street and tried to park in front of his house, never realizing of course that the police car was behind him. He backed up and banged into the police car, breaking its headlight. At that point, the policeman came out and arrested him. I suspect that the policeman was an eager beaver and had to account for the broken light to his superiors. He did not administer a breathalyzer but made the man, who had a slightly game leg that acted up at times of stress (so he claimed) walk a straight line, which he could not do. He also made him recite the alphabet. The man claimed he was made to recite it backward, which the policeman denied. I was torn. So, obviously were the real jurors, who spent the whole afternoon deliberating what was a very minor case. In the end, they voted to convict; I was not so sure I would have.</p>