Have you received a jury summons recently? A lot of our members in the Brits in LA Facebook group have too and it has caused a lot of concern.
Many of our members are here on visas so don’t actually qualify to do jury service and are understandably confused when they receive the notice. It can be quite scary when such an official document arrives in the post, especially when you are here on a temporary basis. Having gone though the visa process myself I know how carefully you all tread, afraid you are going to put a foot wrong. I don’t think I jaywalked once before I got my citizenship!
I received my first summons about 15 years ago. I was a green card holder. I don’t know why but I panicked when I opened it. I naturally ignored it for a few days but then finally plucked up the courage to call the number on the card. The customer service representative on the other end of the phone was surprisingly nice; and reassured me that I wasn’t going to get in to any trouble for not being able to serve. She explained that the process is random and notices were sent to people who have either registered to vote or are in the DMV database. So my name got picked purely because I had a California driving license.
So whatever your status, if you get a notice make sure to respond as by not doing so CAN get you into trouble.
To serve on a jury you need to be a US citizen so if you are not a U.S. Citizen, you must complete SECTION A of the summons and register by calling 1-800-778-5879. Although you are not qualified for service, you are required to complete the registration process.
I recently got summoned again. I received a postcard in the mail with “FAILED TO RESPOND” highlighted in bright red, and that I may be subject to a fine of up to $1500! This time I felt understandably terrified as I am now eligible as a citizen. Obviously, somehow my original summons had got lost in the mail, but miraculously the little scary postcard had made it to me. So again I put it off for a bit then realized the stress was actually worse than a $1500 penalty. I picked up the phone and to my relief I got another friendly customer service rep who told me not to worry and they would just reschedule my court date. My fears of being hauled off to jail or having my citizenship revoked disappeared immediately. That feeling of relief taught me a very good lesson too… never avoid or ignore problems as the fear they create is often far worse than the actual outcome.
I did experience another hiccup, my new date was set but it just wasn’t feasible to take that period off at my work place. This time I visited www.LACourt.org to access ‘My Jury Portal’ and to my delight there was an option to postpone. And with a simple click, and no threat of fines, that’s exactly what I did. I am now due in towards the end of February and to be honest I am actually quite excited to experience the full process. Half of me wants to get selected but a part of me is not sure I want to be a factor in deciding somebody else’s future, I obviously won’t be able to tell you all how it goes until after it is done, but watch this space for future updates…
On a side note, where did court workers get a reputation for being not nice? So far every interaction I have had with the courts have been pretty decent. Is it a British thing, where we constantly think we are going to get in trouble even though no crime has been committed? Or is it the same the world over?
If any of you have served on a jury I would love to hear about your experience, feel free to drop me a line at eileen@britsin.la.
If you want to attend any of our upcoming events you can find all the details on Facebook @BritsinLA or visit us at www.britsin.la
Look forward to seeing you soon!
Cheers!
Eileen
