<p>So after not checking my mailbox for a while, I opened it up to discover that a.) my suite mates had left their combo in the mailbox, and b.) I've been summoned for jury duty. Ironically, I've had a high minded, "its my civic duty" approach to jury duty--except, the date, may 27th, is getting close to the end of the quarter, and I really would not want to miss class. So I'm wondering if anyone else has had past experience with this. Should I call and register now or closer to the date? Does it matter? Btw, I'm registered to vote here in LA even though I'm from the Bay Area. I always thought students were exempt from these things...any input from past experience would be appreciated.</p>
<p>im pretty sure you can have the university excuse you. again im not 100% sure but you can look into it.</p>
<p>students exempt? seriously? for what reason would we be exempt? </p>
<p>Sorry, not a chance - You get to do jury duty just like the rest of us</p>
<p>yup. what icarus said. the only thing i can suggest to you is to try to reschedule to when classes are out. i had a similar problem two years ago where i had to do jury duty but it was during finals week (and could not be exempt.) so i requested it to be rescheduled for a week or two later...</p>
<p>^darn, then i guess the OP is stuck</p>
<p>i based my comment on the fact that my sister is in medical school, and she HAS been exempt by the school from jury duty. probably a different set of rule for professional students.</p>
<p>gotta go to jury duty.. no way out of it. you can postpone it for a few months if its really during a bad time.</p>
<p>i actually had jury duty and had to go to the courthouse a week before i moved into ucla my freshmen year! i pleaded to the judge and he basically didn't care. so i convinced the lawyers i was a bit nuts and got off the case</p>
<p>just act extremely racist and maybe they'll dismiss you :D</p>
<p>lol jk...saw that in a stand up</p>
<p>You can tell them you have finals, and they will reschedule you to the summer. People who were summoned in winter had to make it up during Spring Break, and in the fall, during Winter Break. Advise is to call in the day before your scheduled to go to the courthouse and say you're a CA student. You'll likely be dismissed this time, and rescheduled . </p>
<p>Everyone knows ... if you show extreme bias and prejudice on the summon, you won't be called on the jury. That is easier said than done though .. you really have to be an actor for the day.</p>
<p>Why don't you not show up at all? I got one of those summons. I didn't go, nothing happened. Just say some racist thing.</p>
<p>Read this:</p>
<p>
[quote]
In California, there is a loophole you can take advantage of to get out of serving on a trial if you aren't able to get out of being called for jury service. This is significant, as trials in CA often last 10 - 20 days. In the voir-dire (evaluation of potential candidates for a jury on a specific trial), the judge will ask if anyone has any significant reason not to serve on a trial (which can last for weeks in CA). Most excuses will not be accepted, but some, such as medical excuses, will get you dismissed. </p>
<p>One tack to try: Explain to the judge that you have a pressing, pressing commitment in the next week or two, and that you would be happy to re-schedule your jury service two weeks hence because of this very pressing work or personal commitment. Most judges will agree to let you come back and repeat jury service in two weeks, even if your commitment doesn't rise to the level needed for him to just let you go scott free. However (and here's the catch), by state law you will have served you jury service <em>already</em> by showing up for a day and not being selected for trial. When you return to the jury room, instead of getting your jury service rescheduled they will hand you piece of paper certifying you have completed it. Voila!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>
[quote]
I didn't go, nothing happened.
[/quote]
Really? Did you pay your jail bail already? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I'm a SoCal native. Currently at Berkeley. I am in the same mess, but my permanent address is down in SoCal. I got duty for the 19th, but I will be moving out of my dorm on that day.</p>
<p>Okay...do I live here? I mean this seriously. I consider my parents house in the Bay Area my permanent address. Am I a resident of LA County if I'm only here from September to june? By the way, it even says that full time students are not exempt. I'm thinking of a postponement...by which time I will not actually be in Los Angeles. I wonder if I can do that...Also, the court house is 14 miles away and I have no car. And I have a midterm tomorrow...Aaargh!!!</p>
<p>i think that the person who didn't go prolly just wasn't needed to appear and got lucky.</p>
<p>heads up guys- they get names from voter registration and DMV. so in my mind, if you have two different addresses for this... are you twice as likely to be summoned? cuz that would seriously suck. just wondering if i'm scaring myself unnecessarily.</p>
<p>i think when you call to postpone, someone can shed light on the residency issue. i'm assuming it's a person... but in any case, if the postponement is in LA and you're not a resident of LA in the summer, they'd have to relocate you, right?</p>
<p>what i hate about government is they make you reinvent the wheel every time they want you to do something, and can't ever possibly make life easier even though thousands of people have been in this situation...</p>
<p>
[quote]
students exempt? seriously? for what reason would we be exempt?</p>
<p>Sorry, not a chance - You get to do jury duty just like the rest of us
[/quote]
</p>
<p>not completely true because it depends more on the county/judge and probably more of the judge. i was summoned in september a day before i had my dorm move in date and the judge asked if there were any students in the audience and allowed all of us to be excused. my friend who was summoned in the la county said the judge would not accept school as an excuse and he was selected for the trial that lasted a week. his grades did suffer unfortunately but it is your civic duty</p>
<p>So I called, and turns out the only exemptions they give are to med students. I postponed it until September, when I'll actually be back in LA. I could have postponed it until the summer--when they'll mail something to Hedrick Summit, where I don't live(and which might not even have an open mailroom). But I figured I didn't want to incur whatever legal penalty not answering the summons entails. So i guess first week of school is better than 9th week(though not by much)</p>
<p>You can get exemptions. I was called up like 2 months ago but I don't have a car so there's no way I could have gone and done it. If you don't have transportation you don't have to go, just write them back saying you have no means of getting their, you're a student @ ucla w/o a car, and it's fine.</p>
<p>abraxas:</p>
<p>A few things - </p>
<ul>
<li><p>If you stated different addresses or even stated your name differently (Becky instead of Rebecca or something) then you could get called twice by the same court or by different courts. The jury worker told us once (when I was called for jury duty) to make sure you contact the court to get this straightened out so you don't get called too often. I suggest calling the court in LA and telling them you're actually a resident of another location and would like to fix this up so you don't get called by two different courts. They may or may not sympathize and help with this.</p></li>
<li><p>As you've found out, they don't exempt full time students in California.</p></li>
<li><p>Depending on the type of court, they usually let you postpone up to 6 months without the need of any excuse. You can postpone until summer. My D ended up doing it during spring break. The jury rooms are filled with students during spring break. Luckily she wasn't called to a trial and was out of there and done that morning.</p></li>
<li><p>Depending on the court, you can sometimes get out of it if you don't have adequate transportation. However, they include buses and subways as 'transportation'. If you can demonstrate that it'd take you an hour or 2 to get there, they might let you off.</p></li>
<li><p>Depending on the court, after you show up in the jury pool, they usually ask people to state if they have only a short amount of time available for duty. It used to be that the minimum was 5 days and students usually identified themselves in this category - especially during spring break. They have plenty of trials that'll typically last 3 or 4 days. The downside is that these jurors are the first ones actually called into the courtroom for those shorter trials. My D however, said they upped the minimum number of days to 7. People in business usually have a max of around 10 days that their employers will pay (depending on the place) so they usually get on a trial for no longer than that period of time. Any government worker, including teachers and professors, postal employees, etc. have to serve on any length trial since the government will pay them even if the trial lasts for months. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>I recommend at least trying to pursue the first option I mentioned since it's not really fair that you're on the list of two court jurisdictions to be called.</p>
<p>thats not true. im an undergrad and i got an excpetion</p>
<p>bannana_girl:</p>
<p>It's definitely true at the San Diego County Superior court system that one can't get out of jury duty simply for being a full time student. In fact, they're quite open about it and include it on the summons and well tell you if you try to use it as an excuse. Apparently the court the OP got called to doesn't excuse duty because of being a student either.</p>
<p>Different courts may have different practices.</p>
<p>also, while this won't keep you from getting called more often, if you DO have two names/addresses and you get called and you serve on one, and then get called on the other, you can say you served somewhere in the last 12 months and then you won't have to serve again.</p>