So my dad lives in SF and had a jury duty summons for SF 2 months ago. It was only standby call-in for the whole week. Now he received a summons to report to Oakland (Clay St court) from the US District Court (Northern District of CA).

So my question is: WTH?

Basically standby call-in should be considered as completed service for 1 year right? My dad called them (the Oakland court I'm guessing) and they said he needs a certificate of attendance that he was a juror (which he wasn't, since he was on standby). Oakland notice also says that telephone standby is not excusable.

So why is he being summoned twice in 1 year to different courts? Is this something new? Never had this happen before to me or any of my relatives. Is there any way he can get out of it? Besides asking for excusal of financial hardship.

Here's a FAQ taken from the court website:

 

I don't know the answer to your question, sorry. I am curious about this though.

Jury Duty is one of our extremely important rights and one I look forward to. I hope to be selected at some point.

However, I also understand financial hardship and only hope that when I do go I can afford it or am working somewhere that pays you for the time served.

 

My guess is that they take from the pool of jurors not selected during their standby at the 'local' county level and put them in a pool for the next higher court.

With the amount of people available in a pool from multiple counties, it'd be pretty rare. Sounds like your pops just got lucky and was picked for standby at a higher level court.

 

I got notice 3 times in 4 years, so yes it can happen. I only had to go into court once and haven't gotten it since.

 

*I notice you did not say if the District Summons is also for jury duty? If so then proceed below, if not verify what it is for before showing up because if it's not a jury summons get legal advise before appearing.

Yes U.S. District is higher than County. Yes he has to call-in or appear as requested. The only stand-off's are if he has physically shown at that level or close to it before (thus they want to see paperwork), is unfit for serving in which case a medical note is necessary along with the proper paperwork being filled out, or if he's currently involved in a case in whatever capacity (Plaintiff, Defendant, Witness, Etc.).

I had temporary clearance for the lawsuit against dude that totaled the hotrod and hurt me and before that since I was a Home-Care provider with a job on top of it all. Serve it, move on.

Here's a reference page to use: Civil Forms | United States District Court, Northern District of California

 

^ Yah, it's a jury duty summons

 

I haven't gotten a summons since 2001-2002~

 

A jury duty summons is not certified mail. Therefore they have no way of proving that you actually recieved the notice. If he really does not want to go, just dont go, nor call in. If they call or question you, say you never got the damn thing.

 

^This. Last time I got mine it went right into the trash can and never gave it a second thought.

 

I was in japan last year when mine came. Didn't know about it till I got home and it was already past the date lol. Haven't heard since.

 

It is entirely possible that you could not get called and then it isn't even an issue - more often than not you won't. If you DO get called in and don't show though, you can be fined and technically possibly even put in jail (more likely fined). I had something like Heedz too, where they sent it and I was out of town for a few weeks and I never heard about it again, because they didn't select our group. It really doesn't cost you anything to make 1-2 calls a day to find out.

Ask your manager or HR if you have a policy against it, meaning they don't compensate you for it; that's considered a hardship.

Think about the other side of that - what if the case involves you? Do you want responsible people who show up and take an interest or just the people who are left?

 

Thats 2 different county!? Arent you supposed to attend on w/c county your residence in? I was able to get away from a SF Jury Duty because I was a San Mateo residence but that was a long time ago,

 

That's what I was going to say.


Does he have a dual residence?

 

He already sent in a request for postponement so I don't think that's going to work lol. But my aunt does that all the time. She can't speak english very well so she just never shows up.




Nope. Just SF. Like TheFozz said, US Northern District Court is a higher court than the local county courts. I looked up the FAQs and there's no way to get around it.