I hate jury duty, it is a waste of my time and infringement upon my life, but every year they send me a summons and I have to go, and I can't seem to come up with a good excuse to get out of it.

Anyone here found a good excuse to not serve jury duty? Please tell me!

how old do you have to be, 18? I'm 21 and still haven't gotten a summons. I'm guessing that's a good thing lol but what do they do, pick names at random?

I hate jury duty, it is a waste of my time and infringement upon my life, but every year they send me a summons and I have to go, and I can't seem to come up with a good excuse to get out of it.

Anyone here found a good excuse to not serve jury duty? Please tell me!

Not sure if it works the same way in the US but in Canada, the Defense and Crown inverview the potential Jurors at the same time. If you come of very anti- criminal or anti-cop one of them will exclude you.

If you are too opinionated, more than likely, they will surpass you.

I'm not one to try to get out of jury duty, so maybe I'm not the best person to respond. However, the biggest pain about jury duty to me is the 'being on call' part. As a teacher, it's tough for a school to schedule a substitute if a teacher is called at a moment's notice to report for jury duty in the middle of the day--or they schedule you for jury duty just as the school year is starting.

I just play the chances, personally. I've been summoned for jury duty five times in my life and have never had to serve as a juror. Once I had a conflict of interest with the case, another time the case was dropped and never went to trial and they sent us all home. Twice they selected jurors at random and when the lawyers were happy with who they got, sent the rest of us home. And the last time I was summoned, every time I called the jury phone number, they never needed our group--by the end of the week, we were excused; I never even had to go to the courthouse.

Depending on where you live, if there's a large juror pool, odds are that you won't have to serve--and then they don't call you for a couple of years. Good luck.

Thanks for the feedback. I will see what happens tomorrow.:rolleyes: :confused: :mad:

I'm not one to try to get out of jury duty, so maybe I'm not the best person to respond. However, the biggest pain about jury duty to me is the 'being on call' part.

I have served on one small civil trail which I had no problem with because it was only a 1 day trail. The longer trials is difficult to get jurors though as unless your company has special benefits that cover you for jury duty, the pay here is $30 per day.

Can you imagine the debt inccurred if you are supporting a family and the trial goes for weeks or months.

I have served on one small civil trail which I had no problem with because it was only a 1 day trail. The longer trials is difficult to get jurors though as unless your company has special benefits that cover you for jury duty, the pay here is $30 per day.

Can you imagine the debt inccurred if you are supporting a family and the trial goes for weeks or months.

Exactly! And I would consider that a very legitimate reason not to serve; Good point. I think judges around here where I live would be empathetic in such cases, from what I've observed.

I've been summoned for jury duty one time; luckily it was during the school year so I told them that I go to school 100 miles away and I got excused from it.

I was summoned once but I was in the process of moving out of state so I was excused. :lol:

If you are too opinionated, more than likely, they will surpass you.

This is true. It still sucks that you have to go down and wait but tell them that you think jaywalkers should get "The Chair" and they'll surely pass you by.:D

Wow! See, I would kill to be on a jury. (actually, I guess that would make me need a jury)

Anyways, when I went through voire dire the only time I ever got summoned, I just said I couldn't get paid time off work (which was true), so I was dismissed.

I still had to go through the entire voire dire process.

I hate jury duty, it is a waste of my time and infringement upon my life, but every year they send me a summons and I have to go, and I can't seem to come up with a good excuse to get out of it.

Anyone here found a good excuse to not serve jury duty? Please tell me!

I hate jury duty also, Jrnygrl. The two times I was summoned I was there for only three days or less. I had to report just a month ago and made it to the jury box during the selection process but the case was settled the next (3rd) day. If you're lucky, you may only have to wait around a couple of days before they finally dismiss you.

There are a couple of excuses you can use:

1)You have a relative or friend that has an impending case.

2)You are extremely anti-criminal, cop, or a certain race.

3)You are incompetent.


#2 is your best bet, though #1 is more likely to happen.

Tell them it reminds you of the DMV with hammers

I actually want to be called, seems like an interesting experience.

3)You are incompetent.
Incompetent? How so? What would their valid definition be? I hate confrontation, so I would be highly intimidated to be up on the jury and making decisions and what not. I really do hate confrontation. Ack... :eek:

Tell them you're a racist man-hating alcoholic, and that you're pretty sure you've been abducted by aliens.

Tell them you're a racist man-hating alcoholic, and that you're pretty sure you've been abducted by aliens.

I'd love to see their reaction :)

Incompetent? How so? What would their valid definition be? I hate confrontation, so I would be highly intimidated to be up on the jury and making decisions and what not. I really do hate confrontation. Ack... :eek:


I'm not sure what the government's definition of "incompetent" is. It's probably like ********, or something of that nature. If you come across as extremely unintelligent, I don't think they'll want you as a juror in an important case.

My doctor wrote a note to the court requesting that I be excused for jury duty, due to grief. I had just lost a close family member.

You can also postpone it for a year.

I'm not sure what the government's definition of "incompetent" is. It's probably like ********, or something of that nature. If you come across as extremely unintelligent, I don't think they'll want you as a juror in an important case.
Ah, I see. That makes more sense.

I was called to jury duty once. I was out of town. I'm still out of town.

I'm not sure what the government's definition of "incompetent" is. It's probably like ********, or something of that nature. If you come across as extremely unintelligent, I don't think they'll want you as a juror in an important case.

My definition of "incompetent" would encompass the majority of our political leaders; so clearly, my government and I have very different meanings for the same word....