Under the U.S. Constitution, if you get arrested and charged with a crime, you have the right to a trial by a jury that’s made up of your fellow citizens. The jury is a group of people (12. But in some states it can be as few as 6 or 8). These people are selected to listen to the case and determine if the defendant is guilty or not.
To make sure that everyone gets a fair shot at a jury, U.S. citizens only have to serve on a jury if they’re called. When jury duty comes your way, it’s not something that you can ignore. You have to show up for it. They check if you skip.
Most places limit jury duty to about once a year. That doesn’t mean you’ll end up on a jury every time. It just means that if you get summoned, you need to show up at the court as instructed. A summons is a legal document you might receive for either a criminal case or a civil lawsuit.
This summons will tell you when and where to appear for the court. You should treat this document seriously. If you get one, you need to respond and show up on the date that’s listed. Ignoring a summons can give you some real problems. The court almost always picks a location close to where you live.
When you’re asked to serve on a jury, it’s called “jury duty.” Unless the court lets you off for a good reason or tells you that they don’t need your help, you’ll need to participate.
How Can a Person Summoned Miss Jury Duty?
When someone gets called for jury duty, they just need to show up at the court at the time and place listed in their summons. Most people receive their summons by mail. There are two ways that someone can miss jury duty.
The first way you might miss jury duty is by not responding to the jury summons. You’re expected to also contact the court when you receive the summons to confirm you’ll be there if needed. That means you need to make a quick call soon after you receive the summons or the evening before you’re supposed to show up. You might find out during your call that you don’t need to attend.
The second way someone can miss jury duty is when they respond to the summons but still don’t go to the courthouse on their assigned day.
Both of these situations count as violations and skipping jury duty can give you some pretty serious consequences. Not reporting when you’re asked is against the law. The penalties you could be looking at range quite a bit. In some cases, you might get added back into the pool for future selection. In others, you could be looking at criminal prosecution and the court may issue a bench warrant if you’re held in contempt of court. This doesn’t mean that the police are going to look for you specifically. If you get pulled over and there’s a warrant linked to your name, you could get arrested during that stop
Contempt of court means you’ve willfully ignored or disobeyed a court order. It can also mean you have shown misconduct in front of the court. It might also mean you have acted in a way that interferes with a judge’s work or you have insulted the court itself. If the court decides you’re guilty of contempt, you might spend some time in jail and need to pay fines. Because of all this, you should do your best to respond to any jury summons as soon as you can and make sure to attend the court if you’re asked to go.
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What are Some Valid Reasons for Missing Jury Duty?
Life doesn’t always just line up with jury duty and the courts and judges know this. You might still have some events, emergencies or other things going on when you get called in for duty. That’s why there’s plenty of real reasons why you could be excused from serving on a jury.
You might have never received the official notice with your court date. Maybe you already had another court appearance set up for the same time. You could be sick or recovering from an accident. Natural disasters like tornadoes, earthquakes or floods can get in the way of your attendance. A death in the family usually counts as an excuse, too. It’s not something anyone plans for.
You might also need to take care of someone who depends on you. Jury duty could create hardship for personal or financial reasons or significantly impact your workplace. Students who can’t miss their classes often get excused from jury service. Deployed military members may also receive an exemption. People whose jobs serve the public can be excused too. The courts will also accept other good reasons, even if the person has passed away.
If you need to miss jury duty for any of these reasons then you’ll need to show up on the day that your summons lists and let the court know about your situation. Check your original jury duty summons letter for the steps that you should follow. You’ll need to give some proof to back up your request to be excused.
As another example, if a medical issue is stopping you from attending, you might have to give the court a letter from your doctor. If it’s a work or financial reason, you can try to get a letter from your employer that explains why you can’t attend the proceedings. Most places understand that life happens.
But the court decides these requests one by one. Your reason might feel very clear to you. But the court won’t accept every request that they receive. It can depend on your situation. Just be honest and give them any paperwork that they ask for, and you’ll have the best chance at being excused from your jury duty.
What Happens If I Miss Jury Duty?
If you ever just skip your court date, the court will still charge you with Failure to Appear, which is considered a crime. You’ll then get a criminal charge for this offense. Some states will also treat it as a misdemeanor, while other states might treat it as a felony. Where you live can even determine how it’s handled.
If you miss jury duty, it can lead to a number of consequences or punishments. What happens to you depends on if a judge decides you’re in contempt of court which was mentioned earlier. Contempt can be criminal or civil. When you miss jury duty, it typically falls under civil contempt.
The type of punishment you might receive can change based on the state or local laws and what happened in your case. For example, if someone deliberately goes out of their way to trick the court and skip jury duty, the penalties could be more extreme. The severity varies widely by jurisdiction.
Should I Contact a Lawyer if I Miss Jury Duty?
Now when you miss jury duty, you can get into real issues. As mentioned above, there’s also some big penalties for skipping it. Courts still take these things seriously. If this happens to you, just make sure to talk to a criminal lawyer. This part matters even more if you missed jury duty because you forgot or had one of the problems listed earlier that kept you from showing up.
A lawyer can help to present your side in front of a judge before anything final happens to you. With the right help, you might be able to avoid the fallout that happens when you don’t attend your jury duty, the kind that sticks around longer than you’d expect.
