Does this sound like my coworker is bulls*itting about jury duty?

[Mark_Henderson]

About 8 years ago, when I did jury duty in Boston, I talked about it in here and there were a few people who were really knowledgeable about the process, so I thought this would be a good place to float my question. If I remember right, I think RoadGrader (Boston) & PatsFanLisa (federal) worked in this area.

My coworker is going to be out for the rest of the week and it's giving me some extra work at an inconvenient time when I have some personal things going on. I normally wouldn't doubt that he's on jury duty (he hasn't taken much vacation and could have just put in for that), but some of the things he's said about it seem to possibly be factually incorrect, so I'm curious.

A few weeks ago, he emailed and said that he might be out on Tuesday 5/28 for jury duty. Then, on Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend, he emailed and said that "Norfolk County Court" had contacted him and informed him that he didn't have to report for jury duty on Tuesday, but that he would remain on call for possible service for 3 weeks.

Then, this Saturday, he emailed and said that he'd been assigned jury duty for today (Monday). Then, tonight, he emailed that he'd reported for jury duty at "US District Court in downtown Boston" and was selected for jury duty and informed by the judge that the trial would probably last for about a week. He added that he thought that he'd been selected as foreman of the jury.

Likely, this is all true, and I wouldn't question it except that I thought that Norfolk County Court and US District Court in Boston were separate entities and it seems weird that being on the 3 week waiting list for one would cause you to be summoned for the other. He lives in Brookline, so the Norfolk County part makes sense. I served in Suffolk County Court in Boston and was also summoned once for federal court, but they seemed to operate separately.

Also, when I served, the judge didn't select a foreman until the case had been completely presented, because we weren't supposed to talk to each other about the case anyway. But, that probably works differently in different courtrooms.

I think I'm probably just thinking too much and the odds are that the story is true. There's probably part of the system I don't understand, or he misspoke when he said Norfolk County Court the first time. If someone was going to make something up, they wouldn't create details that don't match.

Do any of you guys know about this stuff?

 

[bideau]

I don't have any legal knowledge, but there's is some oddities here.

A couple of years ago, I got my notice, called the number the night before and was told I wasn't needed. But I was not told to be on-call for 3 weeks or any length of time. I believe there's a different group for every day. If he was grand jury, I think he would be on call, but he would not sit in as a conventional jurist. The jury would be presented with evidence to determine if there was just cause for an indictment.

Also, when I was called, my manager said I would be required to submit proof that I was actually on jury duty for that day. Does your employer require some evidence? If so, then I have to assume he's telling the truth and there's some odd circumstances at play here. If you have a good relationship with your manager,, you can diplomatically start a conversation about it.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Like Bid said, this sounds more like a Grand Jury thing. I only talked to a co- worker who was summoned for this, but his seemed far more structured. I thought his was every Monday but was for a couple months.

 

[Mark_Henderson]

I don't have any legal knowledge, but there's is some oddities here.

A couple of years ago, I got my notice, called the number the night before and was told I wasn't needed. But I was not told to be on-call for 3 weeks or any length of time. I believe there's a different group for every day. If he was grand jury, I think he would be on call, but he would not sit in as a conventional jurist. The jury would be presented with evidence to determine if there was just cause for an indictment.

Also, when I was called, my manager said I would be required to submit proof that I was actually on jury duty for that day. Does your employer require some evidence? If so, then I have to assume he's telling the truth and there's some odd circumstances at play here. If you have a good relationship with your manager,, you can diplomatically start a conversation about it.

Things are pretty laid back and I would look bad if I questioned it and I don't care that much. He has plenty of vacation time coming, so I don't see why this would be made up.

The part that didn't add up to me was specifying that he was summoned by Norfolk County Court and then the next time saying that he'd gone to serve at US District Court in Boston. From my understanding, those are two different things. Boston isn't in Norfolk County and county court and US District Court, which is federal, would be a totally separate summons (I thought).

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Agree.

All of my friends was one locale - Brockton Superior I think.

Summons are typically mailed. Tell him you want copies for his payroll file/HR.

 

[Mark_Henderson]

Agree.

All of my friends was one locale - Brockton Superior I think.

Summons are typically mailed. Tell him you want copies for his payroll file/HR.

I wouldn't do that because it's a laid back environment and it wouldn't be appreciated and I'm not looking to make an enemy. I just wanted to reality check if what seemed fishy to me seemed fishy to others.

If someone was going to lie about this, I'd think they'd make the details match up, so there could be an innocent explanation for the Norfolk County Court/US District Court Boston discrepancy. I just can't think of what it might be.

 

[O.Z.O.]

This is why I don't do jury duty. Too complicated.