General Question

silverfly's avatar

Can you be summoned for jury duty if you're not registered to vote?

Asked by silverfly (4025 points ) April 30th, 2010

Is there any way to get out of jury duty?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

17 Answers

Ponderer983's avatar

Yup…they always find you. One has nothing to do with the other

TILA_ABs_NoMore's avatar

Yep you sure can (be summoned for jury duty if not registered that is). Im in Texas so I dont know it makes a difference, but I’ve always been able to get out of jury duty playing the single working mom card. ;-)

sleepdoc's avatar

@TILA_ABs_NoMore the judge I had in TX wouldn’t let anybody out for any reason.

TILA_ABs_NoMore's avatar

@sleepdoc Hmmm…guess I’ve gotten lucky so far then! I just tell them that I can’t afford to take any time off (which is true) and Ive been dismissed!

Dog's avatar

I thought they selected via DMV records… but I could be wrong.

sleepdoc's avatar

@TILA_ABs_NoMore… man you are lucky!

tinyfaery's avatar

In CA they use DMV records and voter rolls to select jurors. Another state might have different methods.

DrasticDreamer's avatar

It varies from state to state. Many states choose people who are registered to vote, DMV records, those who have a Department of Public Safety card, property tax rolls, etc.

Sarcasm's avatar

Depends on your state.
In CA, voter registry as well as DMV records are used. (well, I guess I’m a broken record here after @tinyfaery and @Dog)

Now, about getting out of it? (These are all from San Diego courthouse. I assume other counties/states share the same or similar things)

If the specific time of year is inconvenient, go to the courthouse and talk to whomever’s in charge of jury, and ask them to reassign you in a few months (I heard you can delay up to 12mo).

When you get the jury summons, there are a few excuses you can check off, things like extreme financial hardship, or lack of transportation.

If neither of those two works out, when you actually go to the courthouse for your jury duty, try to go on a Thursday (or whatever the last day of the week is for your courthouse). That will statistically be the slowest day.

If you’re unlucky enough to get a case on Thursday, then there are still ways to get out. The prosecutor, defense, as well as judge, will ask all of their potential jurors questions. The defense and prosecution will be asking questions to make sure you’re someone who’s likely to be on their side. The judge will ask you other questions, like “If this case were to go on for the duration of one work week, will anyone here suffer from that?” (at which case you could say “yes I have important classes to get to by next Wednesday” or whatever).
Any of the 3 can dismiss you if they don’t feel you’ll be on their side.

thriftymaid's avatar

In my state, the jury pool is drawn from registered voters. I believe it to be the same in other states but am not sure.

slick44's avatar

Yes yes and yes. they get me every year. talk about bad luck.

slick44's avatar

Good luck trying to get out of it. you better be in a coma. Or an immediate family member has to die, other then that. you’re s.o.l

Dog's avatar

Death of an immediate family member does not excuse a person. My spouse was given a 5 day delay but still had to report for jury duty after his grandmother died in February.

Read the summons carefully to see if you can apply for an exclusion.

slick44's avatar

@Dog… I got out of it when my father died. But as you said, they got back to me in a few months. So i guess no i did not get out of it.

njnyjobs's avatar

Yes, there are ways of getting out of Jury Duty, especially if by so doing it would cause economic hardship on your part (as in missing out on income) or by being too knowledgeble of the case at jury selection process by saying that you have read in the papers, saw on TV, perused the internet, listened on the radio about blah, blah, blah (the merits and demerits of the case)

But at some point in time you will have to own up to your civic duty as an American citizen, citizenship that is taken for granted by many, while remains high on the list of things a lot of people dream of becoming. . . . . especially in AZ now.

jaytkay's avatar

I think dodging jury duty is a dick move.

downtide's avatar

I would love to do jury duty but I’ve never even been picked. I believe that here (in the UK) names are taken from the electoral roll, so yes they only pick people who have registered to vote. Which I have.

Answer this question




to answer.


Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther