Who knew this about jury duty in Arizona?
I sure didn’t, until Ron came across these articles. See, I was summoned for jury duty. I received my jury summons in the mail a few weeks ago & taped the card to the refrigerator, so I wouldn’t lose it. It advised me to call after 5:00 the business day before my appearance. For me, that was after 5:00 on Friday, August 26, 2016. When I called on Friday, the recording told me that my group number needed to call back on Monday at 10:15, for a possible appearance at 12:30 that day. I called at 10:15 this morning and was told by the recording that my group was released from having to appear, that I fulfilled my jury duty, and that I wouldn’t be summoned for another jury duty within the next 18 months. However, since Friday, I had been contemplating about not showing up for jury duty and never really considered the consequences if I didn’t. And, apparently, I’m not the only one who thought about not showing up for jury duty…this article in the Phoenix New Times states that 66% of citizens fail to appear for jury duty in Maricopa County!
ABC15.com actually did a story back in 2013 on cracking down on those who skip jury duty. If you fail to appear for jury duty, you could be fined $500 and still be required to fulfill jury duty! Yikes! But that’s not very expensive, compared to other states like Massachusetts. According to this article by LegalZoom, jury dodgers in Massachusetts are fined $2,000! But in New York, the fine is $250. All I can say is I’m glad I didn’t throw that jury summons in the trash. It turns out I didn’t have to serve anyway.
