sp and agorophobic called up for jury service...HELP!!!!!!!

[Hefalump]

Hi i'm 19 years old and ive been called up to do jury service which i am dreading. especially that i am social phobic, suffer a certain degree of agorophobia and high anxiety. problem is i cant turn it down otherwise if you do u get a £1000 fine and a criminal record.

Has anyone else been called up to do jury service?

 

[recluse]

My mum was called up for jury service a few months ago but she was excused because she told them about her high blood pressure.

 

[alltoomuch]

I got a notice for jury duty a few years ago and was dreading it. It was co-incidental that it occured at the same time I started seeing a shrink. I brought the letter to my first session and was told I wasn't fit to stand on a jury. The letter was signed that I couldn't attend for medical reasons and I didn't have to go.

If you really want to get out of it go and see a doctor and tell them the truth. You will find that if you mention any kind of mental health issue to the jury people (or whatever they're called) that wont want anything to do with you.

 

[hiLowOh3]

I was summoned for jury duty last year and also got picked for jury.... Oh man, if you're agorophic, then do all you can to get yourself excused.

You have to speak into the mic and introduce yourself. 8O Everyone will be looking at you. :x good luck!

 

[GettingThere]

Yeah, just two words - medical certificate.

 

[slimjim119]

It seems like I'm being called for jury service every year. And I'm getting sick of it. Federal,state,county courts. All have been sending me notices. I stuck it out a few times, and I was a nervous wreck for a while. So I have been getting notes from my shrink, and have been excused the last time I got one. Hopefully that's it for a very long time.

 

[dpr]

Re: sp and agorophobic called up for jury service...HELP!!!!

Hi i'm 19 years old and ive been called up to do jury service which i am dreading. especially that i am social phobic, suffer a certain degree of agorophobia and high anxiety. problem is i cant turn it down otherwise if you do u get a £1000 fine and a criminal record.

Has anyone else been called up to do jury service?

I have. Don't worry. What I did was I wrote down my doctor's number and name on a piece of paper and brought it with me to court. This guy came out and said to all of us waiting there, "Okay, everyone can come this way please for jury selection" or something like that. I then walked up to him and said, "Excuse me, I have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and I'm in therapy for it. If you want to talk to my doctor I have his number." He just said, "Oh no, don't worry about that. You can leave, no problem."

Hopefully, they will be as understanding with you as this guy was with me!

They know that people have mental illnesses and what not, I'm sure they get it all the time.

 

[Moonie]

I was summoned for it last year. Luckily, I was not picked to be on the panel. Before they pick their people, we had to answer some questions. One of them said, "Would you be more likely to trust a cop's word?" I checked 'yes', but later scribbled it out and said, 'no.' All of us proceeded to another room, they called each person up by name who they needed to clarify things with. They asked me about that question, and I simply said it was a 'mistake.' Luckily, I think it got me off the hook

 

[ljwwriter]

I've worried about jury duty for a while. Recently my friend got a summons in the mail. It came three days after she mailed in her voter's registration card, so obviously that's what triggered jury duty for her. They do use voter registrations list to decide on who to summon, after all. But not exclusively.
If I'm ever called in I'll try my hardest to get a doctor's note to be excused. Of course, one look into some of my documented history and I'm certain that no jury would want me anyway.

I wouldn't advise anyone skipping out on jury duty without letting the courts know. It seems like a small offense, but we all know that the legal system has a penchant for blowing things out of proportion. People have been arrested for continuously dodging jury duty, and I have no doubt that they'd love to fine you a large sum of money for doing it too.

 

[Helyna]

If my mom got out of it for 20 years because my brother and I relied on her to drive us places, you should be able to claim medical problems and be excused.

I didn't know what this was until I googled (is that bad?). Why on earth should you have to do it if you don't want to.

It must be only American.
They have to get normal people, and many different ones. You can't get a fair and impartial jury if it's all by choice.