I moved into a house where the previous tenant had died. Mail service had been stopped for about 6 moths and within days of them resuming service there was a jury summons for federal court. This man would have been about 80 years old and the house was in San Clemente and the federal court house in downtown LA (at least 2 hours away during rush hour). I marked the envelop ‘deceased’ and never heard from them again.
What are they going to do to your spouses who died, issue a warrant for failure to appear?
I also just mark ballots (we vote by mail) as deceased and usually don’t get another ballot for the next election.
I am 67, have been registered to vote (in many places) have always had a license and almost always a registered car (the 3 methods they normally use to call jurors) and have been summoned exactly once. It was during covid, I did have to go to the court house, sit in assigned chairs that were 6’ apart and wait to be called. They called one group of 25 out of about 90 and the rest of us were release.
My daughter was called in the summer when she was in college (so about 19 or 20) and of course was picked. The judge I clerked for called those ‘jello jurors’ as they could be molded into any shape (opinion) the lawyers could influence as they had few preformed opinion.
And just to let you know, it seems like the court is only working 1/2 days, and they don’t have to get there until 10 am and are dismissed for long lunches or at 3 pm, but there are so many motions that the judge has to work on all day that the jury can’t hear, or witnesses are delayed, and people get sick (including lawyers). During trials, the judge and court personnel are usually putting in 10 hour days.
Best story I have was that mental health hearing were always held at 3 pm on Fridays because that’s when the doctors were available. So we had to pick a jury, take testimony, and charge the jury all as fast as possible. In these cases, there wasn’t a lot of discussion about jury instructions as it was almost always the same lawyers. So one case we did it and it was clear that the respondent was NOT going to stay on her meds but it was also clear that if she was on her meds as she was that day, she was fine (and not a danger to anyone). Her son, also questionable mental health, promised to help her.
Jury goes into the jury room, right off the courtroom (door entered back into courtroom) and we’re still in the courtroom deciding if we should order them dinner or ask them what they want and I (the bailiff) hear ‘knock knock knock’ and they say ‘We’re done.’ We couldn’t believe they’d even had time to pick a foreman! It was clear someone said ‘Anyone think she should be committed? No? Knock on the door.’ I don’t think it took 5 minutes. Friday night, 6 pm, they wanted to go home.