Can the jury-duty court ask that?

May 11, 2018 4:34 AM

My partner was called for jury duty and responded with our youngest child's birth certificate (kid is 4) and his employment hours as a professor. He wrote 9-5, even though that is not really how professoring works. The court has responded asking for his work hours on company letterhead and copy of youngest child's birth cert (which they already have). They also asked for mother's work hours on her company letterhead. Can they ask/compel that?

I'm curious--I'm a consultant, so self-employed. Right now my partner takes kids/picks up kids on the days he doesn't teach and then works when he gets back home. I do the other days.

I'm surprised the court can ask him to ask his partner (or ex partner, or no partner) to supply a letter from her employer, and I suspect that they would not ask this of a woman who was claiming to be a caregiver. (The last time he claimed the caregiver status was eight years ago, in the summer, when our oldest was an infant and he was on full-time kid duty. The guy at the jury-duty court said "Why can't your wife take care of him?" in a rather disbelieving voice, and my partner had to explain that his wife worked.)

Does this seem weird to you? Do I actually need to supply a letter on my company letterhead that I am a consultant? I don't actually have company letterhead, but okay.

Ironically, I would be just fine with doing jury-duty myself right now--it's not a busy time for me, as long as it comes after early June (I'm also a grad student and leave for classes at 3:30PM on variable evenings; the semester ends in early June.) But I doubt this is relevant.

This is Brooklyn.

posted by pipti to Law & Government (14 answers total)

That seems normal to me, yes. Generally, being employed is not a justification for not attending jury duty - especially if your employer is a major organisation such as a university (usually there is some language in the employment contract about how much wages will be covered while on duty). Both parents are assumed to be capable of caring for the child and if he can work 9-5 then the existing child care hours will cover the usual court attendance time (usually 9.30-4.30), but if he felt he could not get to the child care in a reasonable time (most likely the courts would consider 7.30-6.30 as acceptable potential hours of child care) they would expect the partner to pitch in unless their employment severely interferes (like with a Police Officer or other position with very rigid hours).
posted by saucysault at 4:43 AM on May 11, 2018 [6 favorites]

" I suspect that they would not ask this of a woman who was claiming to be a caregiver. "

They absolutely ask this of women claiming to be caregivers, and it's super-unusual these days for courts to allow you to miss jury duty as a caregiver unless the child is an infant or you're breastfeeding a baby under 12 months.

They absolutely think he's trying to scam his way out of jury duty by claiming a 4-year-old needs irreplaceable caregiving from him specifically, and that he can't get off work. And, yes, they can compel this information. And, just FYI, courts are getting a lot more aggressive about holding potential jurors in contempt of court for trying to weasel out of jury duty.

If it's absolutely impossible, you might be better off seeking a deferral until summer (if his schedule is lighter in summer), because I think a court will be very unfriendly to the excuse that you have older children (who already go to daycare) and a job (that will obviously comply with the law in allowing your husband to serve, even if they're unhappy about it).
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:55 AM on May 11, 2018 [10 favorites]

Response by poster: Okay, thanks. My radar was set off by the in-person conversation with the guy who seemed disbelieving that his wife couldn't just take care of the baby--it seemed like something they would not ask of a woman.

The issue is that school for both kids ends at 2:30, so on the days that I have work and/or class, this will incur a babysitting expense that is not possible for us right now. If I take off work, this is some lost income for us as I'm freelance. I can't miss class.

The summers mean that we switch off watching the kids and doing work--again, jury duty would either incur a babysitting expense or lost income. Does the court have any mechanism to recognize couples who have some other configuration than one partner employed full-time by an employer and one full-time caregiver?

Again, the BEST option is that I take on jury duty starting after early June, but is there any way to swap out one potential juror for another?
posted by pipti at 5:09 AM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

If I take off work, this is some lost income for us as I'm freelance.

This doesn’t square with you saying that you want to be the one who has jury duty.

Look, jury duty is rarely convenient for anyone, but it’s your civic duty and one that millions of people with kids and jobs do every day. The jury management office deals daily with people trying to get out of jury duty, and the bottom line is they are calling your husband out on his lack of truthfulness. They could have just denied his request outright, but they’re giving him a chance to provide proof.
posted by amro at 5:19 AM on May 11, 2018 [12 favorites]

Response by poster: Wait, what? He is the caregiver for our kids four days a week, who get out of school at 2:30PM every day. He is also a professor who has teaching responsibilities. Who hasn't been truthful? If I take off work, it means lost income for us. Early June would be a better time for me than other times, as I will be out of school and I have a lightish work schedule right now. What is not squaring?
posted by pipti at 5:28 AM on May 11, 2018

Best answer: If it makes you feel any better, my local moms ' groups are full of stories of not being excused from jury duty even when it is explained that you must take care of a breastfeeding infant. It's not because he's male that he's being expected to make alternate arrangements for childcare - women are also expected to do so and often in even more inconvenient or even impossible situations.
posted by peacheater at 5:32 AM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: As a teacher and caregiver, I have gotten deferments until a time when I could do the duties, ie. summers. Depending on your state, call or look online for a form for that.
posted by coevals at 5:32 AM on May 11, 2018

Best answer: My understanding is the court does not care about lost income. In Massachusetts, for example, employers are required to pay regular wages for the first 2 (or maaaybe 3?) days, after which the court pays you some extremely nominal fee. They do not care whether this fee even approaches your usual rate of pay. It's still your civic duty to serve.
posted by Bebo at 5:33 AM on May 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: It actually does seem weird to me to ask for this documentation because based on my observations doing NYC jury duty over the years, I wouldn't think they'd excuse him even if he had the documents.

Also in my experience in NYC you can defer once and request a particular time, and while it's not guaranteed, usually you get the week you ask for. I don't think you can switch who does the JD but at least you can get timing that's better for your family?
posted by lampoil at 5:37 AM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There is no way to swap jurors. It is a citizenship duty, like voting, and you cannot swap votes or vote on each other's behalf.

Courts do have mechanisms to excuse jurors for financial hardship, but I sincerely doubt you're going to meet their threshold for financial hardship. (The threshold is, like, "I'm a single parent of three working for minimum wage with an ex who owes $60,000 in unpaid child support and my children will not eat if I go to jury duty.")
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:41 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Courts do not care about lost income. It's a bonus if an employer pays you anyway, but it's not a reason to get out of jury duty.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 5:46 AM on May 11, 2018

Response by poster: Okay, thanks everyone. We will try to defer to when the semester is over.
posted by pipti at 5:47 AM on May 11, 2018

My son was called while a college student and was able to delay until summer.

Agreed that jury duty is not going to be convenient and your partner is probably better off than many. The jurors in the OJ Simpson trial were sequestered for more than eight months.

To answer your question, their asking for proof seems totally reasonable to me. Why would they just believe someone?
posted by FencingGal at 5:49 AM on May 11, 2018

Where do you live? In MA you can defer jury duty for up to one year, but you WILL be called back usually on the day you specify in that deferment. I have deferred twice.

I first deferred when my daughter was young enough for me to still be pumping and pushed the jury duty back by six months. The second time I was being called up during a very busy time at work, so I pushed that back by only a month. Each time I was sent a summons for that deferred day. So while I absolutely did not get out of jury duty, I was able to push it to a little bit more of a convenient time.

FWIW, the three times I've so far been called, twice we were let out before 1 pm and the third time we were let out by two. I was never called to serve on a jury and I went through voir dire with judges twice.
posted by zizzle at 6:11 AM on May 11, 2018