For Americans Only

[JanetGroene]

If you live aboard and cruise far and wide, have you ever been summoned by your "home" city or county for jury duty? Did you ease out of it or suffer consequences? I understand that New York City accepts very few excuses for not showing up, yet other places accept age, illness or travel as an excuse. I'm interested in all personal experiences from anyone with a U.S. address. Please spread the word. Is there another forum besides this one where I should post this question?

[Jim Cate]

Janet,

Ann and I left the SF bay area in 1986, with previous residences in Richmond and Livermore. Our current legal address is in Chicago. We have never heard from the jury folks in any of these places in all those years.

Cheers,

Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying Towlers Bay, NSW, Oz

[capn_billl]

Good question. If you maintain an address you need to find out how YOUR district polls for jurers. Do they use voter registration or drivers licenses??? Since I have heard of minors getting a summons, some places may use mail lists or other info. Informing your city/county etc. that you have left the country should be sufficient. to prevent having to deal with it you may want to maintain an address in a state that uses voter registration, .... then don't register to vote.

[O.C.Diver]

I divide my time between Florida and Maryland and am also self employed during the summer which would cause a great hardship if I had to serve during my busy season. When I was a MD resident and was notified of upcoming Jury Duty, if there was a conflict, I would immediately contact them (Clerk of the court), and ask for a postponement. Every time they were happy to allow me to pick another month to serve within the next 12 months. They listen all day long to people trying to evade duty. If you come with the intent to fulfill your obligation at a later time, they should be very receptive. Contact the court as soon as you get your questionnaire, don't wait to the last minute!

Ted

[Rolf the Rotten]

I live in Indianapolis and we can get out of jury duty for "extreme inconvenience", in which travel for business or pleasure does fall.

Your mileage may vary! For more information or questions, please contact the court that sent you the notice and/or summons for jury service.

[JanetGroene]

Great input, everyone. Please keep it coming. Anyone have experience with federal courts, petit or grand juries?

[Shrew]

It's going to vary from State to State. I would 'think' that being out of country is a pretty good excuse.

Take a look at this link. Hopefully it is helpful for NYC:

NYJuror.gov Welcome to the Juror Information Web Site

[Dreaming Yachtsman]

The first time in my 60+ years of life to be summoned for jury duty was last year. My son, who opens our mail, simply called the court and reported that I no longer lived at that address (Benton County, Washington) and I have heard nothing more of it.

[hellosailor]

Janet, officially NYC accepts NO excuses from ANYONE. They will grant you an extension if you can't make it when you are first called, maybe two extentions, but the official policy is "Come in and tell it to the judge" with a summons and penalty ($250?) if you don't show.

NYC used to have a limited number of exemptions based on employment and other circumstances, the policy changed in the 90's IIRC. If a letter to the court clerk brought a more reasonable response...that's very possible, just officially not procedure. Bear in mind, the NYC rules apply to the five counties in NYC alone, and not to the rest of NY State.

Sailors out of Florida report that at least several counties there will accept "I'm out of the country and will be for an extended time" as a reason to dismiss jury duty, without an appearance or fuss.

[David M]

There is a whole slew of ways of dressing, behaving and answering questions that will get you out of jury duty. You may have to embarrass yourself in some cases hoping nobody you know hears you or sees you...and some are hilarious. All it takes is a Google search.

[hellosailor]

David, it is one thing to get out of jury duty by not being chosen. it is quite another to get exempted or excused--without having to physically show up for the screening!

How'd you like to interrupt a cruise, spend a grand for airfare, put the boat up in a secure marina, be forced to fly home for a week and possibly longer while you showed up at the courthouse eveyr morning to see if you were chosen?

That's the problem, some venues require you to show up. Physically.

[rover88]

The county send my son an order for jury duty. I wrote on it that he was deployed to Iraq in the Army for 12 months, with 9 remaining. They sent a reply giving him a generous 30 day extension. I wrote a note on the 30-day extension, questioning the bureaucrat's intelligence and returned it. Nothing since then.

[tager]

Laughing out loud.

Wow.

I can't imagine the bureaucrats actually DOING anything about it and using active satellite imagery, AIS data, radio signal triangulation, helicopters, ships and planes to go find a guy on a boat in the caribbean.

[clsailor]

My wife and I established our residency in Florida with St. Brenden's Isle in 2003 then took off cruising. Within a month I received a notice from Florida for jury duty. I call the number on the summons and informed the clerk that I was out of the area cruising and would not be able to get back in time for duty. She informed me that I was excused form duty and that there was not a problem. No hassle.

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by tager

Laughing out loud.

Wow.

I can't imagine the bureaucrats actually DOING anything about it and using active satellite imagery, AIS data, radio signal triangulation, helicopters, ships and planes to go find a guy on a boat in the caribbean.

--but they do have the ability to do so. 35yrs ago,while I was the special services officer in the fire service here on the Island, I worked with the Coast Guard in transferring the fuel oil around in a small steamer which the Guard had chased here from the Carolinas, suspected of drug running.
I was told that the ship had been tracked constantly from the Gulf, up the Red Sea, thru Suez, across the Med, while fuelling in Gib, across the Atlantic, up and down the East coast, and to Bermuda. Ship is now a Scuba dive site on our South Shore.