We love the jury selection process, and we think every American should have the privilege to serve on a jury at least once in their life. Serving on a jury is a great way to perform your civic duty and get a closer look at the justice system, but we understand that it’s not for everybody. If you ended up on this page, there’s a good chance that you’ve been summoned to appear for jury duty and are looking for ways to get out of this commitment. We hope you’ll consider giving jury duty a chance, but if there are real reasons why you don’t think you can serve, we understand.
But what exactly qualifies a person to be excused from the jury selection process? In today’s blog, we look at five completely valid reasons why someone may be excused from jury duty.
How To Be Dismissed From Jury Duty
Again, we’re not saying that you should lie in order to get out of jury duty, but if any of the following factors are true, you may be able to petition the court to be released from the selection process.
1. Undue Familial Hardship – If you can showcase to the court that your attendance at jury duty would place undue hardship on your family, you may be excused. For example, if you are a single parent with a two-year-old, the court may excuse you if you can showcase that it will be very difficult to find childcare so that you could attend jury duty.
2. Undue Employment Hardship – Employees are supposed to be able to attend jury duty without repercussions from their employer, so while you can’t just say that you don’t want to miss work to serve on jury duty, the court will take your specific job demands into consideration. For example, if you are currently traveling for work, or you have your own business and jury duty would place undue hardship on your business, you may be excused.
3. Your Age – You need to be at least 18 years old to serve on a jury, and while the court isn’t going to call someone who is too young to serve on a jury, you may be able to use your age as a reason to get out of the obligation. There is no upper limit for serving on a jury duty, but in Minnesota, individuals over the age of 70 can request to be removed from consideration, and the court will grant this request without needing additional information as to why the person does not want to serve on the jury.
4. Military/School Conflict – If you are serving in the armed forces or are a full-time student and jury duty would cause problems for your ability to fulfill the obligations of these organizations, you may be able to provide proof of your status and seek exclusion from jury selection.
5. Medical Hardship – Finally, you may be able to argue that you cannot serve on a jury for medical reasons. While there is no specific set of health conditions that can get you excused from jury duty, if you can get a note from your physician explaining why serving on jury duty would place you under undue medical hardship, you may be excused. If you’re battling the flu, have a lung condition, require medication to be taken at specific intervals or are severely physically limited by your health condition, you may be excused from jury duty.
We hope that you’ll take the opportunity to serve on a jury if you are ever selected! In the meantime, if you need help in the courtroom as a defendant, let the team at Appelman Law Firm help. Give our team a call today at (952) 224-2277.
