Jury Duty

[SaraM]

I have been summoned for jury duty, but as a CSFer I am not mentally and physically fit for the job as you know. How can I let the authorities know about my problem? I appreciate any suggestion.

 

[Kati]

Provide a doctor's note?

Good luck I hope you get no problem with that.

 

[mezombie]

Check out the information that was sent to you. There should be something there regarding a waiver. My doctor filled out a waiver request (or wrote a letter -- it was so long ago I'm not sure) and I haven't received another jury notice since.

 

[sela]

i have it coming up too. i dread it. i got off before by pretending extreme prejudice about the case. good luck.

 

[gracenote]

I think a doctor's note is enough. I am no longer called up for jury duty.

 

[Francelle]

I LOVE Jury Duty but that was BEFORE my cognitive (and physical) functions became highly variable on any given day. What I'd give to be able to do it again!! Just another loss - grrrr!

 

[BEG]

Jury duty is out of the question for most of us. My doctor wrote me a letter. I used it a second time without any problem even though the date was old. I keep it handy just in case.

BE G

 

[ukxmrv]

I sent in a copy of my disabled badge (the parking space one) and an old copy of a consultants letter. Then wrote a cover letter. They were fine. I'd be happy to do jury service but could not guarantee that I'd be well enough to do it. I cannot sit upright all day, cannot stay awake and cannot concentrate / understand all that is going on (even if I was well enough to leave my home).

 

[SaraM]

Thank you all. You have been very helpful as usual.

 

[serenity]

sorry, this is a nightmare of mine - having to ever deal with getting a summons & how to get out of it since i'm clearly unfit.

 

[Judee]

Jury duty is out of the question for most of us. My doctor wrote me a letter. I used it a second time without any problem even though the date was old. I keep it handy just in case.

I received a jury summons this week which put me into a bit of a panic as I have not been to a doctor in almost 2 years so no doctor to ask for an excuse.

So I found this old thread and one other from 2014 which had some suggestions. (I love PR!!!) This one helped a lot so I wanted to share what I did in case it will help someone else here.

I sent a letter explaining the situation with the filled out summons form in addition to my last two doctors excuses dated 2011 and 2016 (I think) to show that my disability is ongoing.

I also had a supporting evaluation from when I tried for SSDI that I included a portion of to back up what I was saying to them.

Well the lady I dealt with emailed me today to say that she had, "completed my jury duty" and that I should not be called again for "at least 4 years." I'm not sure if this is the same as being excused but if it means I'm exempted for the next 4 years, I'm still happy with the outcome.

I had also requested to be able to fax all the docs to them because going to a copy store is too difficult right now (I didn't want to mail my originals) and I don't have a scanner to do attachments by email. They allowed me to do it this way which was also very helpful.

Jury duty would have been impossible for me to do otherwise if I had my health, I don't think I would have minded.

Also for people who don't have previous doctor's excuses one website had some suggestions that sounded helpful: https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Out-of-Jury-Duty. I might have tried the 2nd one on this list, "Requesting a change of date" but my jurisdiction makes us choose the date we want and they only allow a 6 month extension--not a year as the article says.

Possibly I could have gotten a more updated doctor's excuse by then but I was just concerned it still wouldn't have worked out. Plus this would have placed my date in the colder months and I have an even harder time getting out then.

One more thing, in this other jury duty thread, @Wayne said:

I got a jury summons recently, and when filling out the questionnaire, I wrote that I would love to participate, but couldn't because of chronic health issues, including long-term Lyme. I never heard back from them asking for a Dr. letter.

So you could possibly try that as well.

Anyway, hopefully something here is helpful to someone.