What are excuses to get out of jury service?

Answer 1

Making up excuses to get out of jury service is a dereliction of US citizens' responsibilities. Jury duty is one of the very FEW obligations we are asked to perform as citizens. It shouldn't be shirked with excuses. However, IF you have a legitimate reason that is verifiable, the Court may excuse you. As well, for criminal cases, the attorneys might ask that a juror be eliminated.

Answer 2

If you have a legitimate reason that serving on a jury might excessively but temporarily inconvenience you (e.g. a tax preparer asked to serve on a jury at the peak of his business season in march and april) then the court will probably excuse you, on the condition that you agree to serve on a jury later at a time when it will not inconvenience you.

If you have a legitimate reason due to a specific family situation then the court will decide if it is appropriate to excuse you, on the condition that you are willing to serve on a jury at a later time after that family situation has been dealt with and resolved.

If you have a legitimate health issue that could make it unsafe for you or others on the jury if you served (e.g. uncontrolled seizure disorder unresponsive to medications) the court might grant you a permanent excuse.

If you give some trivial reason to not serve on a jury (e.g. you can't find a babysitter for your kid) then the court will probably order you to serve and find a solution to the issue you raised so it does not prevent you from serving on the jury.

Ultimately whatever the reason you give to be excused it is up to the judgement of the court as to whether it is acceptable or not. The court will also always be more open to granting an excuse if you indicate that you will serve when the reason for the excuse later ceases to be an issue that could prevent you from serving.

I served on a 6 month Federal Grand Jury once and every example I gave above (and many others I don't recall) was tried by somebody in the jury pool to try to get out of serving, each with the expected result.

Answer 3

NONE!