I got a letter to report for jury duty, and filled out the "excused" section and wrote my reasons why. I wrote in the section where it said if you are the primary caregiver to someone who relies on you and have no one else to perform these duties without a financial hardship, etc... I wrote that I am the mother to 3 year old triplets, am their primary caregiver, provide transportation for them to and from school every day, where they attend at a Special Services School for children with special needs, etc... Well, I got the letter today saying that my request was DENIED!!!!! }>

Now what do I do? I am calling them first thing Monday morning to further explain my request and see if they have any miracle solutions to allow me to be able to be there all day. Has anyone been through this and what did you do? Am I expected to keep my kids out of school and drag them along with me and sit there all day? Oh, I also have to park at an arena lot and take a provided bus to the courthouse. Unless this bus has carseats for 3 year olds, there is no way they are getting on it! Ugh, I can go on, I am so furious, but I'll stop here! I'd love to hear any similar stories, thanks...

Jill~
mom to John, Adam and Matthew
10-05-00

http://www.familyfriendlyjuryduty.org/MakeDifference/MakeDifference.htm

GOOD LUCK!!!!

Tulip & The Three Amigos
Born at 35w5d on December 31, 2002 - Happy New Year's Eve!!!
Aimee, Let's bump heads!
Edward, Rollin' Rollin' Rollin', Got to keep on rollin'!
Hope, Bouncy! Bouncy! Bouncy! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

YES! You *can* breastfeed triplets!!!
http://www.tripletconnection.org/dcforum/forum1/14349.html

Tulip & The Three Amigos
GBG born at 35w5d on December 31, 2002 - Happy New Year's Eve!!!

YES! You *can* breastfeed triplets!!!

I am a Velveteen Rabbit, and the birth, love, kisses & magic that are my children has made me Real.

Tulip,
Thank you so much! I just also thought of talking to the people at the school and see if they had any ideas or contacts for me.

Jill~
mom to John, Adam and Matthew
10-05-00

Tulip,
Thanks again for sending me this link, it was so helpful! I had more time to read the entire website, and found that my state on both the federal and state levels does have a family friendly jury duty law covering me under these circumstances. The exact statement on the site describing the excuse was what I had checked off on my summons and then wrote a more detailed description (in a tiny space of two tiny lines!) elaborating why I fit this description. Well, I guess they didn't read it carefully enough or just ignored it, so I am ready to fight this on monday morning!

For anyone else who finds themself in this situation go to www.familyfriendlyjury.org and go to see the laws in your state regarding this issue. Thankfully this law is enacted in my state (NJ) but too bad someone chose to ignore it. Wish me luck on monday, thanks!

Jill~
mom to John, Adam and Matthew
10-05-00

Hi,
I was called to Jury Duty when mine were 3 months old. I was excused because I was breastfeeding them. Just got called again, and got seated on a jury and ended up as foreperson..The funny thing is I sat there (when we were waiting to picked and do the voir dire) and read Runaway Jury! Didn't work either..You may get lucky, go the first day and not get chosen. I think I'd drag all the kids there..watch how fast they send you home! Good luck!

Karolina
Mom to b10/11/91 & bbb 6/14/00

I had to serve on a jury when I had a two-year old son. Luckily it was in my same town but it was 5 1/2 days. My dad changed his work schedule so he could babysit my sons.

With my triplets, I was excused as a primary caregiver. But once they turned five, I was summoned again and was NOT excused. So I took my chances and was not called last year. I should be getting another summons this month. If I do get called, it would be as hard since the boys are in school from 8:30 until 3. However, the before and after school situation will be a bit tricky. I live in the southern part of my county and could be called to serve in the northern part. That's at least an hour commute during rush hour and we have to pay parking. The $5 per day stipend they pay for jury duty doesn't cover parking!

Be careful about dragging your kids with you. If they are under 1, they will excuse you. However, they can charge you with contempt if you bring children with you. That's the way it is here.

Best wishes.

Sharon
6 year old b/b/b + 10 year old son

I have been called for jury duty 3 times since my triplets have been born. Here in illinois the only way you can be excused is with a doctors note. I tried to explain to the woman on the phone at the court house but she said tell it to the judge, she also informed me not to bring my children. thank goodness when i called the # to see if i had to go i got lucky and have not had to actually go YET.

mom to matt, 15, sydney, morgan and cade 4

Sandy

mom to 4 kids
oldest is 18, and trio age 7

For future reference, (Sorry, this won't help you now!) - IGNORE THE SUMMONS! Very unamerican, I know, and I am very sorry that we sometimes have to resort to this. I learned the hard way - I got a VERY stubborn judge when the boys were 6 months old - I still had to go. I later learned from an ATTORNEY that the best thing to do was ignore the summons because there is no way, in my state anyway, for them to prove that you received the summons. We receive ours in our mailbox that is the address we give on our voter's registration card. We live in the country, and our mailbox blows open quite often. We never have to sign to receive our summons, they are just in our mailbox with our normal mail. There is no way to prove we receive our summons. I am very sorry we have to resort to this, and I would be more than happy to serve on a jury if I could find a way to do it. I am a SAHM to four kids, one of which is in school, and the other three are in special services. All grandparents work, I am an only child, and dh's brother's family works as well. And, i just have to say, how many people would be allowed off of work to watch their grandkids, BIL's kids, etc, so the mom could serve jury duty??? Doesn't happen around here! If dh got selected for jury duty, or tried to stay home so that I could serve jury duty, he would receive no pay for that day or days. I am sorry, but we live check to check, as I am sure many of you would understand, and even one days pay is not something we can sacrifice at this time. Hopefully when I go back to work, we can have some semblence of savings, and can contribute to the jury system again. I know I will probably get flamed for this, but we are in a very tight situation, and I see no other way to get out of it for now. Good luck, and I hope that it does work out for you. Whenever someone in our local twins group gets called in for jury duty, we call the tv station, and go down with all our kids to the jury selection. This might work for you as well!


Tiff SAHM to
Mitchell (6 - pitcher on dad's baseball team)
Devin (2 1/2 - playing with the dandelions in the outfield)
Dustin (2 1/2 - shortstop cuz I'm tough!)
Dylan (2 1/2 - catcher, 'cause I have a big mouth, and I do EVERYTHING with Mitchell!)
Nanner (very fat 8yo g golden retriever)
Simba (3yo b rescued Heinz breed)
Wheezer (10 yo g spoiled cat - well, they are all spoiled )
Nicky the rat (b about 2 months)
Goldy the fish (who knows lol! a party favor from an Elmo bday)
(If this list gets much longer I think I'm gonna lose it! LOL!!!)

Tiff (Masters student, part-time Environmental Educator, and mom to:)
M (12 - sports rox)
D (8 - water spirit)
D (8 - animal lover)
D (8 - video gamer)

Tiff,
Wow, what happened after you ignored the summons? Did they contact you? I think that it's sad that it has to come to this in certain circumstances, I would ignore it too, and throw it in the trash if I wasn't so scared! Lol. With my luck, they'd come after me with a huge fine or something, then I'd really be sorry!

Jill~
mom to John, Adam and Matthew
10-05-00

Just another perspective. In my county, you are required to serve. Ignoring a summons isn't good enough. They put out a bench warrant for your arrest. If you are pulled over for a speeding ticket, they can arrest you on the spot. I know people who have had officers who have come to their door - all because they didn't respond to the summons for jury duty!

In a neighboring county, they have no way of tracking the jury pool situation. So you can safely ignore the summons in that county.

Just a warning that situations can vary by state or by county!

Sharon

Waiting for my summons in January 2004!

I got called for jury duty when my trio were 7mos old. I went and tried to appeal, and I was quickly informed that "motherhood was not an excuse to get out of jury duty". I explained to them that my husband would have to take off work to care for the children. They asked if he would get paid for a vacation day if he took off work. I told them he would....so according to them this wouldn't put a financial hardship on our family. They did reschedule my jury duty though and let me pick the date. Luckily my number didn't get called and I was excused. Good luck! I know this can be very frustrating.

Angelia
mom to bgb oct '02

No family friendly advice but I did want to share a story. The last time I was called for jury duty was 5 years ago (pre children). I was actually excused for one week out of the month I was called because I had a preplanned vacation. I have to say I find it sad that they would excuse people because of a vacation but the children be damned. But at the time that vacation was the most important thing to me and I was so thankful they excused me that week. I even offered to serve the next month.

Anyway on the first day of jury duty they have every come for the orientation and selection of the grand jury. That is when anyone denied in writing before could appeal to the judge. Thankfully I was approved in writing so I didn’t have to get up in front of everyone. Well the first person stood up and said she was the sole care provider for her children. He stopped her there and asked if anyone else was using the “childcare excuse”. A few other women stood up. He then told them to see the clerk when we were done and they would be scheduled on alternate days and could arrange to watch each others kids if they didn’t have other child care. Not having kids myself I was appalled. No way would I let some total stranger who just happened to have jury duty the same month watch my children. I just thought that was the stupidest things I ever heard.

I sure hope that things have changed in the past 6 years. Or better yet I hope I don’t get called in the next 4 years.

Oh and I have been told to ignore the summons before also. I know many here have done it successfully. But my luck I would be the first to be tracked down so I don’t think I could do it.

Tasha
Have children afraid of monsters or just looking for a fun kids app? http://www.goawaymonster.com/

My husband and I have both been called for jury duty a lot. The first time I was called, my kids were 7 months old. One of my boys had just recently come home from the hospital and required a lot of specialized care. I called the number on my summons and explained to the clerk and she said "that's the most valid reason I have heard yet to be excused!" "good luck with your babies." The next few times each of us were called our number wasn't selected when we called in the night before. We have both ended up having our numbers drawn and ended up serving on juries since then (twice each). They were all fortunately one day trials though. The last time I served, the jury was a hung jury because of me , I haven't been called again since .
It did take a fair amount of arranging for my kids to be taken care of, when I served and my husband has had to miss an important meetings for his jury duty, and even had to be at jury duty the second time, when one of my boys had one of his many surgeries/proceedures. It was pretty challenging to take two more three year olds to my son's proceedure, but luckily they knew us well at the surgery center, and helped me out. Even if you don't end up being excused, your number may not be drawn and you may not be chosen for the jury either. There are ways to honestly answer the attorneys questions, but still make it certain you wouldn't be chosen for a jury .

Lorraine

Lorraine

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