News-Record.com

No.
You want the privileges, you need to shoulder the responsibility.

No!

However, the courts do need to address another similar issue! There is a portion of the population who are permanently handicapped and the nature of their particular disability excuses them from court duty, in our case by a letter from our doctor which has grown to be almost an annual event!

The courts do not seem to recognize that permanent disability is permanent and the citizen should not have to pay ($15/notice) or inconvenince a medical office to fill out the forms to repeatedly tell the courts the citizen is still unable to serve! My wife gets a court notice about every 12 months and she simply cannot serve for medical reasons! Somehow, the courts need to accept her disability and leave her alone! Undoubtly she would rather serve a few days or weeks than live with the disability for 12 months per year! I am confident there are many other citizens who cannot serve who, if healthy would be more than willing!

Darn it! Our courts do not have to be so obtuse! Judges and lawyers are supposed to be some of the brighter members of society!

There should be a day care center right at the courthouse for people who would need it.

I'm not sure why the other two people said no. The only thing I can think of is that they have never had small children, or, if they have, they have had family and friends nearby who were able to take care of those children when they were called for jury duty. Or, perhaps they were never called. As for me, I have no child care. I have no family here, and all my friends work during the day. If I were to be called for jury duty and I was not excused, I'd have to bring my child with me. That wouldn't be good for anyone. Some sort of child care needs to be provided if people are going to be required to show up for jury duty.

Kim,

Do you not have a husband who could keep the children?

Kim, I would be happy to sit for you! I was notified of jury duty and my husband was planning to have to take the day off of work just so I could go. It turned out that I didn't have to go (you call the morning of duty and sometimes are not needed.) Thank goodness because my husband shouldn't have to miss work for my jury duty but we also have no family, etc. in the state. Those that don't shoulder the responsibilites for kids have NO clue how hard it is to juggle....I even took a toddler with me for a gyno appointment once because I had NO choice! I have recently been subpoened to be a witness in a case and I'm going to be in this situation all over again! I thought I was being a good citizen by staying to be a witness in an incident, but now it will be difficult to be at the courthouse at 8:30 am when I'm still getting kids off to school. Also, the officer who delivered the subpoena said it sometimes takes several days of testifying!--great...

I think it would behoove our judicial system to consider offering some type of child care for jurors and potential jurors. They may even be able to get social worker interns and/or volunteers to run the center, so the main "expense" might be finding a place to physically house such a center. I do not have children myself, but I know that jury duty is not supposed to impart a hardship on anyone.

People like Kim might have a husband that works strange hours, travels all the time, etc. She may also be a single-mom. Individuals that fall into any of those categories do need some sort of help or assistance if the government still requires them to perform their civic duty. Perhaps the whopping $15/day pay that jurors receive could be used to fund the care center in the case of parents that would require it for their children.

However, removing this one set of people from the potential juror pool is not fair to other jurors, the parties in the trial and the excluded persons themselves! It might be a stretch to say, but there are a few people out there that actually enjoy this little bit of civic duty and would be a willing juror if it wasn't for other obligations.

I don't know - it just seems to me that instead of creating an exception to excuse these folks from jury duty, a better opportunity might be to explore a daycare/childcare option instead.

I'm a stay-at-home mom with an exclusively breast-fed, special needs baby and an active 4 year old. My husband would take time off to look after them if I were called to jury duty, but couldn't feed the baby.

People keep saying it is unfair to exclude a portion of the population from the jury selection process and suggest on-site day care at the courthouse. That's not practical. The article said there is no money or space in the Guilford Co. courthouse for daycare. I'm sure many other governments run into budget and space crunches as well. Why is it so unreasonable to allow moms like me a year or two of being excused? I'd be glad to do double duty once my baby is weaned.

It seems like people who just blurt out "No!" aren't considering the depth of responsibility we who care for young children bear. Our JUSTICE system, of all things, ought not be blind to the needs of caregivers and their charges.

Shirley, good luck with testifying! And yes, anonymous, I do have a husband, but he can't just take time off from work if I have to serve on a jury for a week. If he were called for jury duty, then of course his employer would have to give him the time off, but there is no law saying they have to give HIM time off so that I can serve on a jury. He'd lose his job.

Glynnis,I bet if you wrote a letter and told them your story you'd be excused. I know of other people, in Guilford County, with special needs kids, who have been excused for that reason.

If someone is a full-time caregiver, he/she should be able to be excused from jury duty. Even if one can afford it, finding quality child care or quality elder care during the day for an indefinite number of days is next to impossible if you are not already set up for childcare or elder care.

There are other categories of people who do not have to serve on jury duty. Full-time caregivers should be one of those.

As the primary caregiver of four, I was called to jury duty and was not excused. Fortunately, my husband works in law enforcement and was able to take a day off, to stay with the three who were not in school at that time. And we too have no family around to look after the children in cases such as this. However, when I was called for federal jury duty, b/c of our circumstances and my husband's job, I was excused. Yes it is my duty to serve on a jury and I don't mind serving on a jury but at the present time, my priorities have to be my children. And, if you are without children, I am not sure you really understand the sacrifice.

I am facing a dilemma as well. I just received my summons to appear the end of this month. I have 3 children at home, 2 of which I EDUCATE at home. I abide by the law of NC which requires I EDUCATE them a certain number of days per year. I don't have the availability of a SUBSTITUTE teach either. I dont' MIND serving but there is NO GUARANTEE how long one will have to serve. More than a day would be a great hardship on our family.

Yes! I'm a SAHM and I have jury duty tomorrow. Fortunately, they have a daycare center onsite that is of no charge. I don't like the idea of placing my son in a strange environment, with strange people, without any prior introduction. But I guess I don't have a choice. I think you should be excused from jury duty, if childcare is not provided, if you have childcare issues. My husband has only a certain amount of vacation days. If I were choosen for jury duty, and the trial were to last a few weeks, we would be out of luck. The first person's response to "You want the privileges, you need to shoulder the responsibility" is unreasonable. Some people don't have the money to pay for extra childcare, especially since most require you to pay at least 1 month since you have to give a 30-day notice. Not to mention to long wait to get into a really good daycare program. I think it's the county's responsibility to provide free childcare.