another jury duty question?

Question

i am actually asking for my husband. who is not trying to get out of going. we are worried though because he just started a new job. i am going to school and a full time mother of our baby. and money is tight . we are afraid of how many days it will take. one or two days is not that big of a deal. but if it last for a week or more we are not going to be able to pay the rent. ( i said all that because in my last post everyone was yelling at me for not doing my duty as and american) so my question is this on avrage how long does it last? what are the odds of it taking more than a week? oh and let me also add. a phone call wont work. we read the reasons you could be excused and economic reasons are not one of them .




3.

Answer 1

What I would do is send a letter to the court explaining your situation it's worked for me in the past. Just not showing up is the worst thing your husband can do.

Answer 2

I've been on the jury for three trials in county court. One was for four days, the other two were one day each. I've been excused from three other trials, one in Federal court.

I don't know that there is any "average" trial length. I would think that trials lasting for more than a week are few and far between. There are too many cases for a judge to allow their courtroom to be tied up that long unless it's an unusual one.

In all six cases where I was in the jury pool, we were told how long the trial was expected to last. We were also asked if there would be any hardships in serving for that length of time. It wouldn't hurt to be honest if the trial's going to last for more than a week. Both attorneys and the judge want you to pay attention and know that a hardship may be a distraction that keeps you from doing so. Don't make it seem like you just want to get out of jury duty; that will get you into trouble real fast.

Check your local newspaper over the last week. If there is an upcoming trial of unusual length, it's probably mentioned in there.
The last one we had here (guy with his 15th OVI who killed two people), they were announcing his trial start date nearly every day for a month.

Good luck!

Answer 3

I have served as a juror on two different occasions and from my experience their is no "average" time frame. I do think that you might be exempt from serving if you are being asked to serve within a certain amount of time from the last service. I will say this, Judges take jury duty very seriously, one man was threatened with contempt when he told the judge he couldn't serve because he was a heavy smoker and couldn't go for a very long time without a cigarette.

Answer 4

It depends. Only about 1/4 of the people called to jury duty are actually selected to sit on a jury. I've gone 4 times and have never had to be on a jury. It really shouldn't take more than a day unless he's selected to sit on a jury. However, he should be open and honest with the attorneys who question each member of the jury pool.

Answer 5

I think that he should bring it up with them, through a phone call perhaps (try it ANYWAY!), outlining the situation. They know that cases might last quite long (though a lot usually don't), so they'll understand. If he still has to go, odds are he won't be selected because of the situation.