Jury Duty

[Montana_1520]

OK, got a new question for all of you fulltimers--what do you do in a case like this. Male fan just got a jury summons, he called and extended/changed the date for showing up. But what if you are across the country? Do you still get jury summons? How do you get excused?
We don't have a problem with serving and doing our civic duty but are concerned as this is a question/situation that had never occurred to us before. Anybody had this experience?
#29 fans Chuck and Linda Clements
Posey, CA
04 3670RL Big Sky
04 Chevy 3500 CC Dually 4WD Duramax/Allison

[Northstar]

I would say you need to keep rescheduling until you are back in town if you maintain a permanent address. Hope that helps. Happyrving.....

[stiles watson]

I agree with Northstar. Just reschedule until you are back at home base. You probably need to tell them approximately when you expect to return.

[BillyRay]

call and ask questions. where we are from you can reschedule one time only.there no longer is any excuses from doing it. previously depending upon who you were (what type of job) it was possible to be excused...not anymore, everyones fair game now!

[toolmanroy]

You can still get excused. Both Roy and I are self-employed, sole proprietors of our respective businesses. It would put each of us out of business to serve for a long trial. Here they give you a place to e-mail or fax, and I faxed a letter of explanation. They said if you don't hear from them it means you are excused. I just recently asked that Roy be excused. You are also excused here if you are responsible for childcare or eldercare. Each of us would like to serve if we could.

[Montana_31]

Our address is in South Dakota, as least on paper. My wife was summoned to serve and we called and explained that we were in Pa. and won't return to SD for a long time. They told her that the only way she could be excused was by a doctor's note saying it would be in her best health interest not to serve. So we traveled to Illinois and called the Friday before the Monday case and were told that she would not be needed. With the summons came an extensive survey that asked her a lot of questions. Either the trial she was scheduled to serve plea-bargained out or her answers were not to the liking of the lawyers. She is on call for the rest of the 2004-year. We don't send for our mail every week, so we hold our breathe on each delivery that she won't get another notice. When we called we also asked how jurors are picked because we hadn't registered to vote at that time and we were told that it is taken from voter registration supplemented by driver licenses. In her packet of questions were also the names of the people on trial and the circumstances of their arrest. There was a place for comments and I told her to write that she would be happy to serve and should be out on parole by the time the trial occurs. She opted not to write anything. Well, we had a nice trip, got to see some other parts of the good old USA.

[c5racer]

I got a summons from SD for jury duty and when I called they said to just write on it that we were full time RVers, and we would excused. Don't think we'll ever be called again.

[sreigle]

Great question. One I've wondered about, too. We're also fulltimers with South Dakota residency and are interested in both posts about that state. If the time comes I think I'll try C5racer's approach and hope it works for us too. I once served on a jury for a murder trial. Quite an experience.

[Trailer Trash 2]

Call up the court ckerk and tell her that you are doing a walk about ( He He ). No just tell them that you are out of state and wont be back in at least 3 or 4 months, on family maters, and you need to be excused at this time, and if they dont believe you send them a FAX from the state you are in asking the same question in writing. they have to give you your request.

[HamRad]

I have a medical excuse from Jury Duty due to the nature of my disability so I don't have to worry about that. And I must say that before my injury I served on several juries and really enjoyed the experience. Would love to do it again but don't think that is gonna happen.

Just before we left for the Rally Mary Kay received a summons. She called them and told them we'd be out of state for 2 months. Upon our arrival she had a jury summons for this past Monday. Thankfully she was able to make it through the process without too much trouble. So in CA at least in our County they will let you re-schedule. Good luck.

HamRad

[Montana_31]

Donna did tell them that we were in Pa. and wouldn't be back to SD for a long time. Their reply was that is why they send them out so far in advance so arrangements can be made to make the trial. They already knew we were fulltime by our address and they said "We are aware that there are a lot of you out there, but it is your duty to serve as a residence of the state." Could this discrepancy be due to the county that we are a resident of? We are with My Home Address (Hanson County) and not Alternate Resources (Minnehaha County) as our mail forwarding service and address.

[Treecounter]

I got jury duty several years ago while we were traveling and got a postponement. Never heard from them again until a year latter. It was at a time when we should have been on the road. But as I had fallen of the roof of the rig and broke my leg we were home and served my time. Here it wasn't bad only one month. When we lived in Salem it was three months.