<p>My daughter was away for the spring semester and all summer and just returned home (our home, not NYC) last night. In her mail was a Jury Summons from New York County that had been forwarded from her college and that called for an 8/27/09 appearance. Obviously she missed it.
The summons says if one fails to comply, the person is in criminal contempt and subject to fines and imprisonment. I tried to call them but could not get through the recordings. Does anyone know how seriously they take this in NY City? She is supposed to return to school this week, and I hate to think of her having to spend her last year in college fighting some sort of criminal prosecution/bureaucratic nightmare because she did not receive this notice timely.
And for that matter, I do not see any exemption for being a student. Do they really expect a full time student to miss class to wait to be called for a jury? I know in my home town it goes on for days.</p>
<p>I believe that in most jurisdictions, being a full time student would excuse you. The system randomly sends summons out based on voter registration lists, and there is no assumption that once 18, a person is a college student, part-time or full-time.</p>
<p>Other situations also excuse one, such as being the only caregiver of young children (parent, grandparent, guardian, etc.).</p>
<p>The person receiving the summons (in our jurisdiction) is supposed to write a letter explaining one’s situation. This is a change from previously, when you merely had to check off a form (which indicated template situations).</p>
<p>You could make an anonymous call to the court, asking about student status.</p>
<p>You are going to find it very difficult to get through to the jury lines at the NYC courthouses. First, I would suggest your daughter calling at the moment that working hours begin. Second, I would simultaneously send out a letter, certified mail, to the court explaining the circumstances. Again, this letter should come from your daughter. </p>
<p>Assuming that your daughter is over 18, these calls and correspondence should come from her. I’m not sure that the court would even discuss what would be considered personal and confidential matters between your daughter and the court with a parent.</p>
<p>There are no automatic exemptions in New York state. She will probably get another summons telling her that she must report, but I would try hard to get through on the phone to someone there and explain what has happened and ask what to do.</p>
<p>Sally, I wasn’t implying that the OP make a call on the d’s behalf, merely that she make a call regarding policy/categories, but I’m not in NYC, so some of the others here would know better about procedures.</p>
<p>In Massachusetts they do in fact expect a student to either skip class or stay back over break to serve JD. </p>
<p>But, wrt to the summons – according to a good friend (local sheriff), your D only has a duty if officially served. He said that unless the County/City can prove that she received her mail in a timely manner, no judge will impose penalties. </p>
<p>My suggestion would be to send a letter explaining that she was out of the country (or state) on such and such dates, and mail it by return receipt.</p>
<p>Don’t you get called for jury duty where you are registered to vote? I wouldn’t fear the letter. They aren’t going to stalk her and give her a criminal record. Can you imagine the outrage!?</p>
<p>Jury summons get lost in the mail all the time, and the letter is to get the person to report for duty. Not sure how NY state works, but in California, you report in the county you are a registered voter in. </p>
<p>I think the smartest thing to do is send in a certfied letter explaining the circumstances. Most likely, she will be dropped from the rolls for a couple of years. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t panic. Just follow through asap with something in writing. Be sure and send along something that proves she is in college, etc. Is the address they sent summons to a dorm? That would be the icing on the cake.</p>
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Actually, it happens every couple of years that there’s a public crackdown. it usually involves people who’ve ignored a couple of summonses. </p>
<p>I’m a NYC resident, and I second the suggestion of writing a sincere letter explaining the oversight. Ignoring the summons is a problem, but responding in a respectful fashion will resolve the problem because the Clerks here simply want citizens to take jury duty seriously. If she could suggest an alternate time that she would be happy to serve, so much the better.</p>
<p>Every jurisdiction can handle it differently but around here students are definitely NOT excused from jury service. They must serve but the courts make it as easy as they can by being very generous with postponements (I think up to 6 months just via the interactive voice messaging system) so students typically swarm the place during spring and summer breaks. They also allow students to get on juries that they’re quite certain will be less than 5 days long. Our system makes a bit easier as well by allowing one to show up at the courthouse up to 2 weeks before to 2 weeks after the summons date without having to say anything to them.</p>
<p>Regardless, check with the particular courthouse. I’m sure they get this all the time and will at least appreciate that someone is paying attention to the summons and trying to work with them.</p>
<p>In MA, students are expected to serve on jury duty even if they are registered to vote elsewhere. I once was summoned and saw several college students (Harvard, BU, NEU) at the courthouse. Anyone who is summoned for a court date that is not convenient can petition to postpone. Of course, that assumes that the summons has been received, which is not the case for the OP’s D.</p>
<p>Here is the question. Where does student live. Is she registered to vote in NYC, or elsewhere. WHen she is not in school, where does she live. My D is registered to vote in SF, but “lives” in NYC 11 months of the year with school. She lives in a dorm. If the summons was sent to her college, it would appear the summons was sent to an impermanent address, ie the dorm. </p>
<p>My point is don’t fear the letter, just take care of it. I think students that end up serving serve in their home towns? My daughter would be in a state of “jury limbo” then. </p>
<p>So, to the OP- where is your daughter registered to vote. Where is her home base? Was the letter sent to the dorm? Those would be things to check on. You may even want to call her college and ask around. They probably would have some answers.</p>
<p>Jury duty is important. I just served, well, got rejected from a case, but I went, So did my H and my mom, different weeks. However, it is possible to get a letter even though you aren’t in the right county to serve.</p>
<p>I would write a letter and hope that your D can serve over a break. I have been asked to serve 3 times over the last decade, and twice I sat in a courthouse holding room for 3 hours. We were all released because on both occasions the cases settled. The last time I was summoned, I checked online and was notified that I did not need to appear. I was required to be prepared to go the next morning, but after 5pm the day before, they let jurors with certain numbers (ie: jurors #123-427) know that they were not going to be required to appear for jury duty. BTW, I served in NJ.</p>
<p>This is actually very interesting. D2 will be studying abroad, and is now a registered voter in PA, where she attends school (and has stayed during both her summers there). So if they issued a jury summons to her this fall, it would be delivered to her school mailbox, and sit there all semester.</p>
<p>^^ Would it not be forwarded with the rest of her mail? Every end of academic year, my S filled out a forwarding address. We’ve actually received quite a few pieces of mail forwarded by the USPS after being sent to his campus mail.</p>
<p>You might want to check out NYJuror.gov, the official NY Juror website: [url=<a href=“http://www.nyjuror.gov/users/wwwucs/]http://www.nyjuror.gov/users/wwwucs/[/url”>http://www.nyjuror.gov/users/wwwucs/]http://www.nyjuror.gov/users/wwwucs/[/url</a>]</p>
<p>It might not answer your exact question, but it would be a good starting point to figure out what to do and whom to contact.</p>
<p>The best thing to do is get a letter from the school saying she was in school at the time of jury duty. She then needs to take it to the clerks office and they will settle it. The $250 fine is only given on very rare occasions and you need to miss many many letters for them to actually impose it. </p>
<p>NYC does have student exceptions, you just need to do what I have said above.</p>
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<p>Well, we wouldn’t know since she’s stayed on campus both after freshman and sophomore years (they keep the same mailbox all four years). I can’t imagine they’d forward her mail to London. However, H and I will be visiting campus in October, and can check her mailbox then. Perhaps she can have a friend on campus check it from time to time.</p>
<p>We had to get our state senator to intervene when my S1 was called for jury duty in GA, while attending school in PA. GA only agreed to postpone it till spring break, but he was spending spring break on a service project and wasn’t coming home. The senator asked for the details and took care of it. S never got a summons again until last year – He’s lived (and voted) in DC for 4 years now. I made a mistake in opening it to see if it was something important, or if it was junk mail. S had to send a bunch of copies of things to GA to prove he didn’t live here. I learned my lesson, and since then, mark anything from them as “not at this address - return to sender”. </p>
<p>Here in Ga they do treat missing a jury date very seriously, and it can have severe consequences. I think it is important that your D stress (and be prepared to offer proof) that she was out of the country. I don’t even think anybody would care if the mom called instead of the kid - this isn’t a college application we’re dealing with, it’s a request for information. If the kid is out of town, it makes sense that someone else would call.</p>
<p>teriwtt:</p>
<p>My S went to the post office every end of academic year to request his mail to be forwarded. Some stray pieces did get to his campus address and was forwarded with several weeks’ delay.</p>