Remember how I always wanted to be on a jury? Remember how sad I was that I didn't get to be on one? Well, apparently you don't only get one shot. You are on the list for a period of time. I was summoned again. But before you get too excited for me, it has turned into a bad thing.
On May 30th, when I got back from Moab, there was a letter in the mail from the 4th district court. I was so excited! I thought I'd been given a second chance! They wanted me for jury duty on Wednesday, June 3rd. That was only 4 days away! Unfortunately I had already committed to do a makeup job that day (see previous post). When you are on a film set, if you are late or don't show up or anything goes wrong, it costs money. They were counting on me to be there to do makeup and if I didn't show up, it would be really, really bad. You always have to call-in the night before you are scheduled for jury duty and listen to a recorded message telling you if you need to show up or not, so I thought I still had a chance to get out of it. (I never thought I'd want to get out of jury duty!)
I called the night before, as instructed. The recorded message was out-dated and said, "If you are calling about jury duty on May 12th, you do not need to appear." I wasn't calling about May 12th; I was calling about June 3rd. I waited a while and called again. Same message. I waited a couple more hours and called again. Same message. I figured that if they didn't even bother to update their message, they probably didn't need me for jury duty.
The next morning, I went to my makeup job. Around 9:30am, I got a call from the court. The lady said that I needed to be there for jury duty. I told her I was at work and could not attend. I told her I had called the night before, got the out-dated message and figured that I didn't need to go. She was not too happy and said she'd tell the judge that I wouldn't be there and that she'd call me back if the judge decided I HAD to be there. I didn't get a call back.
This past Saturday I got another letter in the mail from the court. I was less excited about it this time because I feared it was not what I was hoping for. The letter stated that jury duty is REQUIRED and if you don't show up, you are in contempt which could result in a $1,000 fine and jail time. (A little excessive I think.) I have been summoned to appear before the judge next week and discuss why I didn't show up for jury duty and then she will decide what my punishment is.
I WANT TO BE ON A JURY!
I couldn't make it that one day, but please, please put me on a jury for any other day! I will gladly appear!
I will let you know my fate next week.
8 comments:
Don't worry Meems. Maybe they will give you another chance to be on a jury.
Holy cow! What a mess. Go and beg them to put you on jury duty and maybe the judge will be lenient.
Wow... WOW!... WOW!!! That is crazy. Well, good luck with that. I really hope they give you a break or maybe not and your punishment is that you have to do like 5 of them... I don't know... a girl can dream right? I will keep my fingers crossed.
Holy cow! I think if you just let the judge know that you are MORE than willing to serve, then she will go easy on you. It's not like you didn't try to call.
I cannot believe that. So screwed up.
I was once to appear for jury duty, during a time that I was going on vacation. I had to send in a request to be released from jury duty and the reason why. They did release me. I have been to jury duty before and every time it is a waster of time where they release you because the case didn't go anywhere. Good luck to you!
Outdated messages = their fault, not yours. When you appear in court, you should bring with you a printout of all your previous blog posts about jury duty, starting with the one in March. That way the judge can see the dates you wrote them and your enthusiasm for serving on a jury. Couldn't hurt to bring a printout of this post too, as it documents in your words what happened. Good luck!
Okay that is the dummest thing I have ever heard. It's their stupid fault for not updating their message and they can't just assume everyone can drop everything and appear. You of all people would drop everything if you could. Don't they know you live to be a juror?! GEEZ!
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