Urgent Please Help Regarding Jury Duty for Student

activ8newbs on 27/10/2017 - 21:38
Last edited 28/10/2017 - 10:22 by 1 other user

Hi guys, I need urgent advice.

My good friend has been summonsed to Jury duty. He received the notice about a month back.

The trial starts THIS MONDAY 30/10/17.

On 22/10/17 he applied to be exempt via their online website due to a university clash. He is on exams in the 4th week of the 4 week trial. Plus he works part time and needs the income to support his family (Financial not sound background).

Despite applying more than a week before the trial, he has still not heard any response except

"We have recieved your request. We'll get back to you ASAP. If we don't get back to you in time before the case starts, you may still be required to attend."

I feel bad - He's really freaking out. I know he has a lot on his plate. He needs the time to study.

Can you please suggest what to do? Anyone have any insights or been in a similar situation?

Many thanks.
Worried friend of another Unistudent

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  altomic on 27/10/2017 - 22:11

  don't sweat it. i was called for jury duty. I couldn't because a few days before the date a family member had a sudden serious illness. I let them know . it was fine.

  they call a lot of people for jury duty and weed out the ones that are inappropriate . plus people are no-shows, people get sick, people have stuff on in their lives, etc.

  he let them know. that's good. he can't do much more than that. (maybe send another email)

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  fossilfuel on 27/10/2017 - 22:57

  I got summoned as well in early semester 1. Sent them my uni timetable and they got back to me in a few days. However, I got called up a second time during my uni break. No escape was possible. In my situation, I signed in, sat in the waiting room doing work and waited. I got a lot of study done in that 4 hour period. The officials will call people up and if he does get selected, he'll go before a judge where he can explain himself and ask for exemption (they're very reasonable). If not, you wait around for at most 4 hours and then they dismiss you. Worse case scenario, he'll spend at most a day at court.

  Legally his employer must release him from work to attend a jury summons. If he's part-time and he's rostered to work that day, his employer must pay him for any time off work.

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  Findo on 27/10/2017 - 23:05

  +1

  Rock up in shorts and thongs, you’ll get dismissed for sure