Jury duty and court payments

[muzzey58]

My husband received a questionnaire for jury duty at the US District Court where our cased was filed in 2006. We are a within only 7 to 8 months of our case being discharged. Also, I find it somewhat strange that the court house is located in another county and is over 30 miles from our home.

This is not my problem though with all of this. The court will only pay $40 a day for jury duty or selection. My husband's job will not let him use sick/vacation pay for jury duty and will not pay him while he's on jury duty. That's means it would be $200 a week in income which would not cover our court payments. If anyone knows anything about being in chapter 13 is that you CAN NOT miss any court payments or they will definitely dismiss your case. We do not have potentially $500 to pay the court either.

Would this be considered a hardship that would excuse him for jury duty? I have contacted my lawyer via email and am waiting on a response. Also, our case was filed at this court and our Trustee, Judge and Attorney are all part of this court. My husband said not to be concerned about the matter. Being a woman you have to look at this rationally and not procrastinate about it either. The hardships also might be his health, work conflicts since he is in management, transportation being we only have one car and that the court is over 30 miles from our home and there is no public transportation in our county.

We're almost at the end of the case and I just want the bankruptcy to end peacefully after this long haul. I would really appreciate any help and answers. Thank you.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Your Trustee has no choice but to compromise as it is a legal requirement as a Citizen to serve Jury Duty. However, if it is truly a hardship, calling the clerk of court with an explanation, most likely they will drop you from the list. I could not make my Jury Duty but called to state a planned trip at that time. They moved me to the next month. I wasted a day and did not get picked anyway. It is up to the Clerk of Court as to valid reason. There should be a number to call on the Jury Summons. 'Hub

[walkthaplank]

Your husband might want to mail a letter explaining this to the clerk of the court, the address should be listed on the form. Asking to delay jury service for several months is much more likely to be granted rather than dismissal from jury service due to financial hardship as they will all tell you that financial hardship is not a reason to be dismissed from service. Barring that, if they force your husband to come in hardship or no, have your lawyer contact the trustee, if something can't be worked out there, your husband can always just tell the court during voire dire that it is an extreme financial hardship and it will impact his ability to be impartial as he has an interest in ending the case as soon as possible. He will be excused by the defense counsel immediately. I am a big believer in jury service, but you are between a rock and a hard place as it will effect your ability to comply with a US District Court order to complete your duty in another District Court.

Try for an extension until after your plan is completed. Good luck!

[LadyInTheRed]

I once got called for jury duty and was able to get off because of a financial hardship. But, it wasn't the clerk who excused me. I went to court and waited to be assigned to a court room. The judge asked before beginning voire dire whether anybody would claim a financial hardship. He then told everyone else to come back tomorrow and had those who raised their hand fill out a questionnaire. I said that I had no savings and lived paycheck to paycheck, that my employer would not pay me for jury duty and the loss of income would quickly result in me being unable to pay rent and I'd be evicted. I was on the list of people who were excused without further questioning. I've been called to jury duty several times since then and every judge treats it differently. Some have you wait until you actually get questioned as a potential juror and you have to explain your situation in open court. Some will allow you to go to chambers to discuss it in private.

Asking for an extension is probably your husband's best bet. I think they are routinely granted by the clerk.

I think the employer saying he can't use vacation pay to cover jury duty is ridiculous. If he requests a vacation time and has vacation pay available, it's none of their business what he does while on vacation. Maybe he should just take vacation the week he is scheduled for jury duty. It's pretty easy to answer questions in a way that will get you disqualified from a jury. So, he could get excused pretty quickly and enjoy the rest of the week off. Or, if it's a short trial, he can serve on the jury.