<p>i just got a letter from alameda courts saying that i have jury duty, but i have class on the day they want me to report. i would postpone it, but it will only let me postpone it at least 6 months later, so next semester. i don't know what my schedule is for next semester is yet, so what should i do? i would do it during vacation, but i am actually from socal; i'm registered to vote in alameda county though.</p>
<p>what should i do? should i postpone it until next semester and skip class? or should i call and ask to be excused?</p>
<p>I think you can postpone it now and keep postponing it. You’re in college; your jury duty can be waived. You might have to tell them what months you are free (ex: summer) though. I had to serve this past summer and was picked to be on a trial. It was such an awful experience but I got to see Chris Brown walk into the courthouse.</p>
<p>You might have to tell Alameda County about your residence status too. </p>
<p>Don’t forget that jury duty is not only one day. If you get picked for a case, it might be a whole week or more.</p>
<p>Just be like go into the interview saying you’re the grand wizard. Surely, you’ll be kicked out in a flash.</p>
<p>Just rehashing what batman said…</p>
<p>If it gets to the point that you have to interview with the lawyers and you want to get out for certain, just be like… “It was a black guy huh” right off the bat before the interview even begins. </p>
<p>I kid you not, it’ll work.</p>
<p>Don’t think that you can easily get out of jury duty by coming off as a mentally unstable person. I wanted to get off the case, but when the attorneys interviewed us, they did so in a group. There were 20+ other people. The attorneys only asked me a question once and asked more questions to a few select people. You don’t have easy opportunities to come off as a weirdo especially when the judge keeps reminding you that it is the law for you to be impartial. Unless you’re a really aggressive person who can improv well at sounding reasonably crazy, then don’t think you can easily escape the grips of being chosen for a case. The people who usually get picked off are lawyers or policemen because supposedly their experience of how the law works makes them disqualified/too smart.</p>
<p>Plus, if you do have school the next day, it is your duty to tell the judge of that case so you have to postpone or, if you’re lucky, be excused. You wouldn’t want to be legally bound to serving in a case while missing school.</p>
<p>how do i get excused? do i call or send back the letter? or can i do it online?</p>
<p>i won’t be able to have a week to devote because i have class everyday and i always go back to LA during vacation.</p>
<p>Do NOT skip class to report; as others have noted, if you report and are selected for jury duty, you may have to report for several consecutive days.</p>
<p>The letter should have included instructions as to how you can go about getting your date postponed or being excused from jury duty completely (usually for some specific period of time, typically 18 - 24 months). At the very least, there will be some phone number or address for who to contact about these procedures. </p>
<p>Check the requirements carefully to see if there is any way you can qualify to be excused. from jury duty I don’t know what they are in your particular area, but I do know that in some jurisdictions, college students are routinely excused under a “personal hardship” provision (since absences from class can have a significant impact on their grades). </p>
<p>Contact the court as soon as possible; do not delay. The sooner you put in your request to be excused, the more likely you are to get it. There may even be a deadline (well before your court date) that you have to meet in order to be excused.</p>
<p>You don’t need to report at all. Just send them a response saying you are a student living in the dorms and still consider yourself a permanent resident of x county in socal. They will excuse you. I had this happen last year and there was no problem.</p>
<p>Yeah, school is definitely an excuse. They can’t take you away from your education. My friend went to court and told them that he couldn’t show up because he had school. But for you, you could probably just call them.</p>
<p>i did what AVNevis said. just marked, “i am not a resident of this county” and mailed it back.
we’ll see what happens. </p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>i had jury duty for the first time last semester, and i didnt postpone it because i did not think i would be called in. not showing up for jury duty is a felony! luckily, i didnt really have class that day. i was actually randomly selected all the way to be in those jury seats (which is lucky or else i could have waited the whole day for them to go through interviews and stuff) and i told the judge that i had school, showed her my id, and she excused me saying that it is a valid hardship. but the point is, just postpone it!</p>