ByHow To Postpone Jury Duty: What You Need To Know
While you can’t skip jury duty without an acceptable excuse, you can try to postpone it if you feel that the timing is inconvenient. DoNotPay is here to tell you and help you prepare by writing a jury duty leave request for you in case you need to take time off from work while serving.
What Are the Acceptable Excuses for Postponing Jury Duty?
There are a number of excuses that you can use to postpone your service, namely:
- Extreme financial hardship
- Full-time studies
- Military service
- Mental or emotional instability
- Breastfeeding
- Essential service
- Medical reasons
- Prior jury duty service
- Conservatorship or childcare
- Inconvenient schedule
Extreme Financial Hardship
If being absent from work would cause extreme financial loss, you can request postponement of duty as long as you have relevant financial documents to back up your claim. Since both state and federal courts offer compensations for jury duty, the court may reject your postponement request if the compensation covers your loss of income.
Full-Time Studies
If jury duty coincides with your studies, you need to present a copy of your student ID and school term schedule as evidence.
Military Service
While federal jurors serving in the military are exempt from serving on a jury, the same excuse doesn’t apply to state jurors. To postpone your duty, you can have your commanding officer contact the jury commission office.
Mental or Emotional Instability
To support claims of mental or emotional instability, a psychiatrist or a psychologist’s testimony is required.
Breastfeeding
As a breastfeeding mother, you need to provide a doctor’s note or a midwife’s letter to postpone your service.
Essential Service
You can postpone your jury duty with a written statement signed by your superiors if you’re a:
- Firefighter
- Police officer
- Medic
Medical Reasons
In case you can’t perform jury duty because of medical reasons, make sure to submit a doctor’s note as evidence.
Prior Jury Duty Service
You can postpone jury duty if you have served in the last 2–3 years, provided that you can submit proof.
Conservatorship or Childcare
If you have someone in your custody and you can’t leave them for the duration of your jury service, provide a written explanation and relevant documents verifying your caregiver status.
Inconvenient Schedule
You may reschedule your jury service date up to two times in one year if the timing doesn’t work for you.
How To Postpone Jury Duty
You can request postponement of duty by following these steps:
| Step | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Contact your assigned jury commission office | You can get in touch with your district court:
|
| State your reason for the postponement | You will be asked about your service date, your juror index number (provided in the summons), your new suggested dates, and your postponement reasons. Depending on the excuse, you may also be instructed to send proof |
| Check your postponement status | You will be notified through the court’s official website, via email, or over the phone |
If the court rejects your postponement request, you must show up for the selection. Since the point of trials by jury is to ensure impartiality and fairness, you will be asked various questions about your beliefs, prejudices, background, and similar.
Can You Postpone Jury Duty Because of Work?
Having a job is not a valid ground for postponing jury duty, especially since, by law, employers are prohibited from firing workers for serving on a jury.
You must inform your employer about your summons a few days in advance. The easiest way to do so is by sending them a jury duty leave request letter.
Let DoNotPay Draft a Jury Duty Leave Request Letter in Your Stead!
If you aren’t sure how to prepare a letter to request time off from work, DoNotPay can help you with the task. Here are the steps you need to take:
- Find the Request Jury Duty Leave product
- Answer several questions, and upload your summons
- Place an electronic signature and submit the form
You can opt to forward the letter to your employer’s email through DoNotPay or print it so you can send it yourself.
DoNotPay Provides More Resources on Jury Duty
You can check out how jury duty works in each state by consulting our comprehensive guides below:
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