<p>Students live full-time 8 months in MA for four years as opposed to their home state where they may not even return for the summer months. A student attending college out of state may actually find it easier to get out of jury duty in the home state on the grounds of hardship.</p>
<p>Still, the OP's post had to do with missing classes; this could have been avoided by specifying an alternative date; it did not even have to be after finals.</p>
<p>Some of the victims and defendents in court cases may well be out-of-state college students. </p>
<p>It doesn't seem unreasonable to ask other out-of-state students to serve, with the proviso that jurors can choose a convenient date to serve.</p>
<p>Out-of-state students benefit from the court system and more generally the criminal justice systems of the places where they go to school. </p>
<p>The burdens of possible jury duty in two states are nothing compared to the sacrifices many college students made in World War II to leave college and defend their country and the free world.</p>
<p>"The burdens of possible jury duty in two states are nothing compared to the sacrifices many college students made in World War II to leave college and defend their country and the free world."</p>
<p>Inarguable, of course. They're nothing as compared to a lot of things. Any "burden" can be compared to a harsher one. </p>
<p>That still doesn't justify the 1nequality of the system as compared to how different states handle it (Mass being an outlier). I neither live in or have sent students to MA, so it's not a personal issue to me, jsut my observations. </p>
<p>Marite, the question was raised in subsequent posts, and I think it bears merit.</p>
<p>I still maintain the OP understands basic civics and didn't need scolding (which seems to me is getting more and more common on these boards--as you yourself have experienced, perhaps.)</p>
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I still maintain the OP understands basic civics and didn't need scolding (which seems to me is getting more and more common on these boards--as you yourself have experienced, perhaps.)
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<p>I agree!</p>
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Some of the victims and defendents in court cases may well be out-of-state college students.
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<p>Yes, indeed. A case that's been wending its way through the Middlesex court involves an OOS graduate student (at Harvard, nacht) accused of killing a local man.</p>
<p>Garland, I'm not scolding anyone, just reflecting aloud on the public policy implications of this. </p>
<p>I have a child attending college in MA from out-of-state, and I can sympathize with the inconveniences of jury duty, whether in one state or two. Certainly there have been times in my life when jury duty would have been very difficult, in one state, let alone two. </p>
<p>If my child is called to jury duty, I would hope that she could work out details so that it isn't unduly burdensome. Ideally, it should be an educational and uplifting experience, but I know the reality doesn't always work that way!</p>
<p>The bottom line is that there is no practical way to ensure that everyone has exactly the same burden of jury service. Inequality is inherent in the system--there are short trials and long trials, emotionally difficult trials and more routine civil trials. There are limits to the extent to which the burdens of jury service can be perfectly evenly distributed.</p>
<p>Having 50 different state systems does cause considerable practical difficulties and inefficiencies (as well as blessings of diversity and natural experiments.)</p>
<p>It's common for people to have to file multiple income returns if they earn income in different states. The good news is that they can get a credit against their tax liability in their home state for taxes owed to other states where they earned income. </p>
<p>The bad news is that this system causes a lot of paperwork and bureaucratic hassle. (It's sometimes referred to as the "jock tax" because professional athletes are required to pay taxes on their prorated income from every state in which they play. This also applies to the lower-paid team employees who travel with the team, e.g., trainers and other support staff.)</p>
<p>In principle, I could imagine a parallel formal system in which a college student who served in his college town would get an exemption from further service that would be honored in his home state as well as the college state for the next few years. (And vice versa--if the student had recently served in his home state, his exemption certificate could apply in the new state.)</p>
<p>If I were a judge in the home state, I would certainly be sympathetic to a student who had such a certificate and who wrote to me explaining that there would be a significant double burden involved in serving a second time.</p>
<p>The same situation comes up when people who are not college students move from one state to another. You could have just done your jury duty in one state when you move to a new one. </p>
<p>The new state is under no legal obligation to honor your exemption in your old state, but if I were a judge or court official, I would be inclined to be sympathetic, at least in the case of someone who wrote that they had had a signficant burden in their last jury tour.</p>
<p>(Many jury tours are minimally burdensome. In our state, jury service means being "on call" for a week, but most called for jury duty don't even have to physically report. They just call a special phone number every evening to see if they must report the following day. If they do have to report, it's one day or one trial, and they are excused. In my last tour of duty, I called in on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Each time I was informed that I was not needed the next day and on Wednesday, I was informed that I was not needed at all and would be mailed a certiifcate exempting me from service for the next three years. If I had moved out of state immediately afterwards, I wouldn't have expected an out-of-state judge to be too sympathetic to my request to honor my exemption in the new state. However, if I'd been impaneled on a jury that had served for several days and had significant burdens of serving, I would expect a more sympathetic hearing to my request for the exemption to carry over in my new state.)</p>
<p>The state and local jurisdictions of Massachusetts do a lot for college students, even those in private colleges like BU. BU students live in dorms and attend classes in buildings that are exempt from property tax and their meals are exempt from sales tax. Despite this tax-exemption they receive municipal services like police and fire department, etc. Private colleges can raise money to build new buildings by issuing tax-exempt bonds under the authority of state-established bond-issuing entities. Massachusetts offers subsidized loans to parents of all students attending MA colleges, regardless of where the student and parents claim residency. I don't think requiring jury service from out-of-state students is an unreasonable burden, given that they do benefit from the criminal and civil justice systems of the state.</p>
<p>garland----thank you</p>
<p>lderochi: your statement that "the stay at home parent that has to find daycare" is not right in my state. They have a box to check if you are needed to take care of minor-aged kids.</p>
<p>question....</p>
<p>Could she have just called in "sick" on the days she was to appear? Do you need a doctor's note to do so?</p>
<p>That's a very progressive state. Yeah, how often do you get to hear that? :) Is it an automatic exemption, or just one of many factors that may get you excused?</p>
<p>There must be some alternative to serving on the exact days requested. I know that once when I was asked to serve, the days were near my "due date" for my second child so I was excused. One time, my husband was scheduled during a hectic work time and he was able to defer serving for 6 months.</p>
<p>No college student should have to screw up his/her GPA in order to serve on jury duty. That's crazy -- especially since scholarships can be "on the line". There must be the means to move one's serve date to the summer or some other time (after all, what if the jury dates ran thru final exam week, you can't tell me that you'd have to skip all your exams.)</p>
<p>iderochi: It's just a box you can check and then you send the form back. It gets you off.</p>
<p>Jlauer: See my post #21.</p>
<p>marite: My point was that there must be means to move one's dates. After all, one could have a vacation or wedding or something important scheduled that can't be "moved". I know that we were able to get our dates moved in CA and in AL. There must be ways in other states.</p>
<p>Jlauer:</p>
<p>Isn't the below absolutely clear that one can specify a date that is more convenient? Does this not address your concern?</p>
<p>To quote again:</p>
<p>POSTPONING
TRIAL JUROR
SERVICE</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>
<p><a href="http://www.mass.gov/courts/jury/trial.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.mass.gov/courts/jury/trial.htm</a></p>
<p>marite:</p>
<p>I need to get my eyes checked. When I first looked at your post, I didnt read the post number that you referred to correctly. Sorry.</p>
<p>Ok so Ill try to present this one more time with more facts. </p>
<p>After much research, I have yet to find one other state that summons what MA calls inhabitants for 50% of the year for jury duty. All of the following states list resident as a requirement for jury duty: AZ, CA,ME, NH, VT, RI, PA, OH, MI,VA,NC,SC, GA,FL Every one of them uses drivers license and /or voter registration lists for their jury duty lists. My guess is if I keep going that this in the standard across the entire country. </p>
<p>Every state recognizes that it is a hardship for students to serve while actively going to school and has provisions for them to defer to a better time like summer or breaks. </p>
<p>The students from OOS living in dorms in MA who are summoned to serve have very few options to overcome this "recognized hardship". </p>
<p>Dorms close during all breaks and the day after finals. These students leave MA they do not have anywhere to live when the dorms close. I (like most) purchase airline tickets for my daughter well in advance for the best price. She is booked on a flight the day after finals finish. (Im not sure why people on this board keep suggesting that these are students who stay in MA. These are not kids in apartments or graduate students this was a whole dorm full of kids who received notices. None of Ds friends stay in MA over breaks or summer.) Therefore they are pretty much forced to serve their jury duty while in school. And yes you can defer the date .but it plainly states that if the date you request is not available they will assign the next available date. <a href="http://www.mass.gov/courts/jury/images/IAI-2.JPG%5B/url%5D">http://www.mass.gov/courts/jury/images/IAI-2.JPG</a> My daughter deferred the first notice as it was a week when she had 2 exams scheduled and requested a Friday (her lightest day of classes) on a week when she did not have any exams scheduled and in the hopes it would only be a 1 day thing ---she was assigned the following Monday and served for 3 days. The judge in charge dismissed jurors who would incur day care expenses and those who stated they would incur financial hardships, along with a few others who had individual problems, but she told all the students that serving for them was not a hardship and they all stayed. </p>
<p>Every one of these OOS students holds a drivers license or voter registration card which makes them eligible for jury duty in their own state. They are not shirking their civic duties-- their obligations are in their own home states. </p>
<p>MA or the Boston/Cambridge areas are not the only places in the country with large numbers of college students. I live10 minutes from ASU, which is home to more than 39,000 undergrads at one school. And all of these other states have large college populations as well. </p>
<p>So if every other state in the country can keep their judicial systems alive and well with their own residents and let their students serve their duty when it isnt so stressful ..whats the problem in MA. </p>
<p>The Jury Commissioner I spoke to here in AZ said he wanted students to feel that jury duty was a positive experience not a form of punishment or added stress for them. He said he was happy to work with their schedules to give them that experience and hopefully they will continue to serve without hesitation in the future. Smart Man IMO .I told him to call The MA jury commissioner. </p>
<p>And if every other state uses voter registration /drivers license lists isnt that a much more equitable system. Seems to me MA is the only one disrupting what seems to be a pretty standardized system across the rest of the country. </p>
<p>Unfortunately those of us out of state people who are affected by this cant do much more than complain since none of us can VOTE in that state in order to change the laws. </p>
<p>One more interesting fact I stumbled on MA is the only state out of all the ones I listed that does not begin paying jurors for jury duty until the 4th day of service. Every other state pays for every day of service in amounts ranging from $9 to $40/ day. So those students who served 3 days didnt get a dime for their service (or even to cover their lunch!).</p>
<p>I'm surprised that some OOS student hasn't sued the state about this. I wonder what the Supreme Court would say? What about coming to court the first day wearing a shirt saying "GUILTY".</p>
<p>I have been following this thread a bit and thought I'd share my D's experience. D is an undergrad in Boston and home is out of state (approx 3 hrs drive.) She was received a letter last fall with an appointment to serve Jury duty in Newton Courthouse in January which is during winter break when the dorms are closed and she would be home. She debated for a long time as to what to do, either drive to Boston (Newton) for a daytrip to serve jury duty (hoping it was only a day) or to defer until the semester started and risk missing class/campus job, etc. The complication with deferring is that she is not allowed to have a car at school, and we were not able to find any evidence of public transportation from her school to the Newton Courthouse, so she had no idea as to how she would get there other than incurring cabfare. Therefore, she opted to drive up for the day. </p>
<p>Sounds easy enough., but, as she was getting ready to mail the confirmation back to the Jury administration, she noticed that they indicated that a mailing (questionnaire, and other info including the juror info phone number) would be sent 10 days prior to the date that she was to serve. Well, this would be difficult since she would not be at school to receive it, so she called them to ask if they could send the mailing to our home rather than the dorm, and they refused saying that they could not mail it out of state!! How ridiculous!! She had to have her boss from her campus job pick it up for her and provide her the pertinent info via phone/fax. If they are going to ask these out of state kids to serve then they need to be a bit more accomodating with the communications.</p>
<p>In anycase, the whole experience was somewhat of a nuisance, but she did drive up that day with a friend in a nasty rainstorm, she was in and out of the courthouse in 90 minutes and was able to spend the rest of the day in Boston. Good news is she is done for a few years!!</p>
<p>I need to see if there is reciprocity in our home state.</p>
<p>Wow, what a pain! A friend of my D's also received a summons for jury duty and when she filled it out requesting a different date she never noticed that the summons was for a court in Dorchester. So she was assigned the date she requested--but in this Dorchester court. And as you said -none of them have cars and she was completely unfamiliar with the area (she is also from OOS)-so she had to take a cab to and from the court. Luckily she too only had to go for one day. We have since learned that you can also request to serve in a different court if the one you are assigned is a problem for you.</p>
<p>In mass, if you are in a state school....from out of state are you allowed to apply for residency? If not I believe that if you do have to play oos tuition than you should be able to opt out of mandatory jury duty in MA.</p>
