Help! Jury duty and sitter just canceled

[Anonymous]

Just don't go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your husband misses his meeting. You are being summoned by a court - this is more important than his meeting.

I would say your husband problem solves this. Likely this involves bringing them to his office, but maybe he calls in sick, or has another solution. A marriage dynamic where be takes so little responsibility for the kids that you risk contempt of court, even a tiny risk of it, isn’t healthy. It’s a terrible thing to model for your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, I would not bring your children.

Simply do not show up.
There has got to be a phone no.# or website where you can directly tell someone of your circumstance….maybe present a note from your babysitter confirming that she was set to watch your kids but had to cancel due to an emergency?

Lol

[Anonymous]

I always got out of jury duty because I am my kids’ primary caretaker. Ridiculous that you need a sitter for jury duty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP’s above. I spoke with an attorney friend who believes they could find me in contempt if I do this because it’s a common excuse to get out of JD, particularly in the summer when school isn’t in session. But maybe she is just looking out for me in a worst-case scenario?

Yeah, playing the long game… had two kids just so I wouldn’t have to serve. Much less of a pain in the arse than sitting on a jury. So stupid. It’s such a horrible burden on the primary caregiver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your husband misses his meeting. You are being summoned by a court - this is more important than his meeting.

I would say your husband problem solves this. Likely this involves bringing them to his office, but maybe he calls in sick, or has another solution. A marriage dynamic where be takes so little responsibility for the kids that you risk contempt of court, even a tiny risk of it, isn’t healthy. It’s a terrible thing to model for your kids.

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your husband misses his meeting. You are being summoned by a court - this is more important than his meeting.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, what court is this? I would not let my kids out of my sight in a courthouse like DC Superior. You’d be better off leaving them home alone with the ten year old as the babysitter. Can DH take them to work?

+1 Don't bring your kids and leave them alone in a courthouse with criminals and random strangers. They either go to your DH's work where they have somewhere safe to hang out or you leave them home.

[Anonymous]

I'm in FFX county. I been called up 3 times, you get into a rotation every 10 years on so in FFX, I showed up the first time and just sat in the lobby for hours and hours, a short time later I got called up again and same thing filled a questionairre and sat.

I got called up again 2 years ago, the letter explained the rotation thing. I put the letter in my mail pile and forgot all about it, so I didn't show, which I guess put me in the not reliable group, which is a good thing I think if you have no interest in serving on a jury.

I don't, as I've spent enough time in a courtroom to know the interesting ones involve someone possibly losing their livlihood, family and going to jail, which I have no interest in voting for and or some boring corporate dispute which I likewise have no interest in sitting through.

No consequences that I know of other than I haven't been called up since. Show up with the kids and there is a pretty good chance they will tell you to go home and put you back in the cue because you were reliable enough to make more of enough effort, you actually showed up and with kids in tow, which is more then 60% of the people who get called to serve would.

People with busy lives avoid jury duty like the plague, there is a reason there are a lot of pensioners on jury duty.

[Anonymous]

This is your husband’s problem for the day.

[Anonymous]

Agree this is your husband's problem to solve. You don't have a single neighbor who works from home? Where your kids could sit in their living room for an hour or two? I can think of like 10 people I could call for this in an emergency. Or, yeah, kids sit in your husband's office for two hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree this is your husband's problem to solve. You don't have a single neighbor who works from home? Where your kids could sit in their living room for an hour or two? I can think of like 10 people I could call for this in an emergency. Or, yeah, kids sit in your husband's office for two hours.

This is not always a realistic perspective. With the current job market/employment situation the way it is, some people, including many husbands, cannot just announce that they're going to skip a meeting last minute even when there is a big issue like a partner's jury duty and child care hanging in the balance. Many people are under A LOT of stress to show up and perform well at work right now in this economy. And not every workplace will just let kids sit in a husband's office (if there even is a traditional "office" to sit in -- what if her husband is in medicine or law enforcement or who knows what?)

As for neighbors, it's nice if an option exists in such an idyllic neighborhood, but in this day and age not everyone enjoys that sort of network, I certainly don't.

[Anonymous]

Honest question, does anyone know, do they actually put a warrant out for your arrest, a bench warrant or whatever it’s called, if you don’t show up? Is it all scare tactics? Like, imagine you legitimately didn’t receive the summons for some reason, or legitimately forgot. If you get pulled over for speeding, will you be arrested? New fear unlocked! Is there even a way to check for this?

[Anonymous]

I agree with the others- you go to jury duty and the kids are your husband’s problem to solve. If that means they have to sit at his office or in an office lobby that is better than being at the courthouse IMO.

Something similar happened to me. My DH made it work, and I ended up being in the group that was dismissed after about 2 hours anyway.

[Anonymous]

Can your husband come home to get them at 10 if needed?

If so, I’d just leave them home alone. Age 10 is old enough. Safer than leaving them unattended in public like that IMO.

It is very possible you will not even be at the courthouse for long. Often they dismiss a lot of people early.