Standby jury duty in Chicago

September 7, 2015 8:35 PM

I live in Chicago and received a notice that I was on standby jury duty tomorrow and should call a number after 4:30 on the day before to find out if I needed to show up to the courthouse. When I call the number, though, it tells me that the info is not available and I should call after 4:30. It's 10:30 now. What do I do? How do I find if I need to show up?
posted by LSK to Society & Culture (8 answers total)

In California the same information is also available on website - you might google for particular court system (eg. Superior Court, xyz County) to see if you can find it.
posted by metahawk at 8:39 PM on September 7, 2015

Response by poster: The website just got instructs people to call the hotline :(

I guess there's not much AskMe can do but I was hoping to find out if anyone else had a similar problem and knew how to resolve it. The office doesn't even open until 30 minutes before I have to show up, so there's no way to find out before I'd have to leave...
posted by LSK at 8:49 PM on September 7, 2015

It happened to me here. I showed up and it turns out that's what they wanted. They also told me that if that happens, I could either: show up and get credit for it (work slip for the day, the $10 pay or whatever) whether I was supposed to or not OR, not go and it wouldn't be considered a failure to show (which is normally a misdemeanor).

I wouldn't generalize from my experience. Probably the safest thing is to show up and insist on getting the verification for your employer.
posted by ctmf at 8:58 PM on September 7, 2015

Oh also, here (and again YMMV), they want everyone to show up on the first day of the two-week standby period, just to get the indoc video, welcome from the judge, and whatnot out of the way. The rest of the days they call in a smaller subset to sit around waiting for jury selections.
posted by ctmf at 9:02 PM on September 7, 2015

Best answer: You should appear. If the judge is cranky, a warrant could be issued for your failing to show. And that's no damn fun.
posted by MrJM at 9:02 PM on September 7, 2015

I have never heard of anyone in Chicago getting into any kind of trouble for not appearing for jury duty. No, they can't arrest you, you have not committed a crime. The worst that happens is they send you another summons.
posted by deathpanels at 3:41 AM on September 8, 2015

>>I have never heard of anyone in Chicago getting into any kind of trouble for not appearing for jury duty. No, they can't arrest you, you have not committed a crime. The worst that happens is they send you another summons.
posted by deathpanels at 3:41 AM on September 8 [+] [!]


Yes you can be (but probably won't be) arrested for not appearing. I am a lawyer (licensed in Illinois) but not yours.

I would show up that should be sufficient to get you out of further service this go around.
posted by prk60091 at 4:52 AM on September 8, 2015

Um, yes, you are in trouble if you don't show up for jury duty, and yes, a judge can issue a warrant for you if they want. I work in appeals in Chicago and see this happen now and again.
posted by agregoli at 5:11 AM on September 8, 2015