Jury duty in NYC and work travel. Should I postpone?

May 30, 2018 12:46 PM

I've been selected for jury duty in NYC on a Friday. I have a work trip (that I cannot reschedule) starting the following Monday. Should I a) show up on the Friday and explain that I cannot serve if they put me on a jury for the following week due to my work travel or b) postpone? (Note: I travel a lot for work, often at short notice, which makes postponing tricky.)
posted by unhappyprofessor to Law & Government (16 answers total)

Have you actually been selected to serve on a jury, or do you have a summons to report for jury duty?

If you just have a summons to report for jury duty (i.e., possible selection to serve on a jury), then you can postpone. There should be instructions for that on your summons or on the court website.
posted by erst at 12:51 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

There should be a number on your jury summons for the jury coordinator. They are usually very helpful and can give you better advice than I can.
posted by hydra77 at 12:52 PM on May 30, 2018

Response by poster: Ah sorry. Summons to report for jury duty.
posted by unhappyprofessor at 12:55 PM on May 30, 2018

In my experience with NYC jury duty, it could be more than a day of waiting before you can see the judge and officially get excused (if they buy your excuse- they're tough!). So I would try to postpone.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:55 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure if you were summoned for state or federal court. I was called and postponed for state (Manhattan) about a year ago. It was a fairly straightforward process and they let me pick the date I would serve (from a list of dates), but it had to be within a particular period. I don't recall the time period constraints exactly but something like at least 60 days away but within 6 months or something like that. If I were you, I'd see if I could do that and pick a date that you can block out on your work calendar now.

However, when I did actually show up and serve, those of us who had not gotten seated (including me - I was never even called in for voir dire) were dismissed after a single day because of the court's needs. So it is possible that you could show up Friday and be done with it then. However, I don't think they would know that/tell you if that were the case until the end of the day, so you'd be taking a risk that you'd still have to postpone if you were supposed to come back on Monday.
posted by Caz721 at 1:19 PM on May 30, 2018

Postpone. Assuming this is state court you get at least one postponement as of right, and while you may very well be excused after one day, you might not (jury duty is supposed to be three days, but is often shorter).
posted by holborne at 1:20 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

This happened to me and I chose to go rather than postpone because my schedule is erratic and my employment doesn't offer any kind of accommodations for serving jury duty. The summons-to-appear isn't a guarantee that you'll be selected for a jury; you may just end up sitting in the courthouse all day. If your number doesn't come up, you just go home. My business trip was scheduled for a week and a half from the trial date, so I gambled that either I wouldn't get called or that, if called, I would get a quick(ish) case.

My number did come up, though, for a case that definitely didn't look like it'd be quick, and I had to explain to the judge that I had a non-cancellable business trip, and she yelled at me for like three solid minutes about what a terrible citizen I was. But, she did excuse me from duty. You would likely also get excused but you might get yelled at.
posted by halation at 1:24 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

You can postpone very easily in NYC, in my experience, and the people responsible for the rescheduling are very understanding about the many and varied work-related scheduling issues that exist in a 24/7 city like NYC.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:44 PM on May 30, 2018

I'm not aware of an entitlement to skip jury duty because of a work trip. So I would be careful how you explain this to the judge—requesting that you be excused because it would be a damaging hardship to you otherwise is very different from saying you refuse to carry out your legal duty. And if you have a way to easily postpone, the judge might be a little bit annoyed that you're wasting their time instead. Above all, you don't want a judge to decide that they are going to teach you a lesson.
posted by grouse at 2:23 PM on May 30, 2018

Could you postpone but request a specific date/week in the future for the postponement? That would give you an opportunity to plan accordingly and either pick a week when you're unlikely to travel or that you can reschedule travel. I don't know if NYC allows it but I know people elsewhere who have done this, couldn't hurt to ask.

I also have a job that requires a ton of last-minute travel and happen to have a summons for next Monday. I considered postponing but ultimately decided against it, and told my boss I wasn't available to travel that week. I'm gambling that I won't be needed for any longer than that (assuming I'm needed at all).
posted by photo guy at 3:15 PM on May 30, 2018

Postpone. If you’ve already postponed multiple times they might ask to see a ticket.
posted by JPD at 6:03 PM on May 30, 2018

It is likely you'll be dismissed after waiting around for a few hours, but you can't know that for sure, so postpone to be safe--if you are selected for the jury, you must serve. Jury duty is mandatory and having a job is rarely going to be a decent excuse for getting out of it -- you are undergoing cancer treatments? maybe. You're taking care of a relative who needs 24/7 care? maybe. You have to work? Nope. You might get a very sympathetic judge but in NYC I doubt it.

I travel a lot for work, often at short notice, which makes postponing tricky

The priorities run the other way--you get your new jury duty date, and tell your job you cannot travel that week.
posted by epanalepsis at 5:39 AM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Alright, sounds like the consensus is to postpone. Thanks, everyone!
posted by unhappyprofessor at 6:53 AM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

Jury duty is mandatory and having a job is rarely going to be a decent excuse for getting out of it

Last time I did jury duty, only one guy got excused for work-related reasons. He was a pediatric neurosurgeon. Everyone else was told to reschedule their work stuff.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:37 AM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

In Philly, there's a no-questions-asked electronic postponement right on the summons, but it's not obvious among all the other instructions (Philadelphia sent my husband and me summonses on the same day - no-can-do, and what a dumb way to select).
posted by Pax at 9:01 AM on May 31, 2018

Last time I did jury duty, only one guy got excused for work-related reasons. He was a pediatric neurosurgeon. Everyone else was told to reschedule their work stuff.

This reminded me of the last time I had jury duty. I wasn't picked to be on the jury, but one of the people who was selected happened to be a neurosurgeon, too. When I heard him tell the judge that he was scheduled to perform several surgeries on the same days as the trial, I thought for sure that the judge would excuse the doctor. But no. The judge told the doctor to reschedule the surgeries! And that's what the doctor did.

So, when Unhappy Prof writes that they "cannot serve because of work," it's obviously never safe to assume that the judge will agree.

PS I can't resist making this point: Neurosurgery is important, but jury trials are important, too. I get upset when I hear people talk about trying to get out of jury duty just because they don't want to serve. Anybody who would want to have a jury trial if it was their rights that were at stake should want to serve, too. Even if they don't. It's the right thing to do. It's a good thing to do, too.
posted by Transl3y at 11:04 PM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]