What happens if you ignore a jury duty summons in California?
I’d like to add an answer to this pool, because some of these answers are preachy and don’t address the practical question of what to do if you find yourself in the situation where you missed/ignored/forgot that you had jury duty.I am currently through my week of jury summons right now and have an explanation as to why some people say that it doesn’t matter whether you go or not and others say you’ll get in trouble.It’s Wednesday and so far this week, I checked my summons and my group number has not been called to actually report to go in. There are quite a few groups of people that are on call — like me — and maybe 5% of those groups have actually been requested to physically show up this week so far (I can see this because it’s all publicly available on the court website).I believe, based on the other answers here (and other research) that if your jury group IS called to physically show up and don’t, California will issue a passive “bench warrant” that will show up on your record. But if your group ISN’T called to show up during your jury summons week, then it’s no different than if you just ignored or forgot your jury summons.In other words, there’s no difference between what I’m doing now — checking each day to see if my group is supposed to report in — and not responding to the summons. In both cases, the court system doesn’t know whether I’m doing anything at all, since I haven’t been asked to register, log in, or contact them personally… I’ve just been checking the public website and finding that my group doesn’t need to report in.So I think whether you actually get a bench warrant issued or not depends on whether your group gets called during the jury summons week, which also depends on how many court cases there are that week that require juries.Anyway, that’s my educated guess of what’s going on based on what I am seeing of how the system currently operates as a potential juror. I’m not implying that anyone should shirk their civic duty, you certainly should not!
What happens if you have missed jury duty (California)? Has this happened to you?
I missed my jury duty and I received this notice in the mail: "Your failure to appear in court is punishable by contempt of court and/or fine and failure to respond to this notice may result in the court ordering monetary sanctions." That sounds very serious. And yes, I should have went but I didn't so now what? Have you or anyone you've known had this happen to them? Will I get in trouble if I call myself in? Or will I get in even more trouble by not calling myself in? Serious answers only, please.
Jury duty service in california?
I have to keep checking on the site to see if I have to go to court for jury duty. How soon would I have to report if I was called in? The next day or would it be that same day? For instance if they callled me on Monday, would they say I had to come in that Monday or tomorrow, Tuesday?
They called me for "jury duty"?
You go. You sit on a jury for the term specified. It's all there in the paper; or call the number. You serve because it's your civic duty. No one has time. Jury still has to be seated. Who knows what the trial is about? Each court and jury session is different. You may be deciding a bunch of parking scofflaws or a murder. YOu'll find out when you get there.
How many hours/days does jury duty take up?
There are so many pieces to this puzzle and variations of the pieces that I’m going to narrow it down and answer two questions that I am most often asked-Assume that you have been pulled out of the main jury pool and are now a potential juror for a specific trial.How many total days should I expect?What do the typical hours per day look like?How many total days should I expect? Most jurors, if they are planning on actually showing up when summoned, think about their life and what adjustments they would need to make to accommodate the commitment. Many lawyers will tell you that the great majority of trials last less than a week. Many Human Resource (HR) professionals make the same assumption. Sooooooooo a good rule of thumb is to anticipate one week.Note- So you are a potential juror for a specific trial. You’re sitting in a courtroom with your fellow potential jurors. One of the first things that will happen is the judge will give you a brief description of the case. This will include his estimate of the number of trial days needed.Every once in a while the potential jurors receive a shocker and the judge says three weeks or six weeks or very rarely even worse. The next words out of his mouth will be some variation of “Will that be a problem for anyone?” Of course dozens of hands go up and away we go! Everyone involved is expecting this when a trial is very long. Now you might begin to understand while it is sometimes very difficult to find jurors!What do the typical hours per day look like? 9 to 5 is very common but a little more detail is needed. You can anticipate at least one break in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch will be at least an hour and quite often more. If the judge senses a natural break in the testimony, you could be sent home early.Don’t expect to be watching testimony the entire time. Depending upon what’s happening, you can be sent back to the jury room to twiddle your thumbs!Note- When the testimony is over and your deliberations begin your hours might be longer. It’s not uncommon for a judge to have dinner sent to the jury room and ask you to continue deliberating well into the evening. Soooooooooo for planning purposes, I would say 9 to 5 until deliberations begin and then anything goes!Note- On both of my trials we were given a “working dinner” and asked to deliberate into the evening. In each case we were sent home at 8:00 pm.