This Is What Happens If You Ignore Jury Duty.

I have a confession to make: I spent the first ten years of my adult life ignoring all official correspondence from the government, including jury duty notices. I didn’t really consider myself part of the Matrix and figured the court wouldn’t want me on the jury anyway. There were no negative consequences for me, other than being a little worried sometimes, but maybe I was just lucky. So I’ve looked at what happens if a person ignores the jury’s letters.

Let me start by saying that you should not ignore the jury summons . First, because it is your duty to serve on a jury, and you should be glad to live in a society governed by laws and do your part to keep the wheels turning. Second, it is very easy to avoid jury duty through legal means. But if you’re determined to ignore The Man, or you’re the kind of person who doesn’t bother to answer your mail, here’s what could happen to you if you don’t respond to a jury summons.

What happens if you ignore the jury duty letter?

The jury notice details the rather serious consequences of ignoring the subpoena. Courts may consider ignoring a jury summons to be a contempt of court and punish offenders accordingly, imposing penalties that may include fines and imprisonment. But serious punishment is rare.

In the real world, it is extremely unlikely that the police will show up at your door and arrest you for not responding to a letter from the county court. This would be impractical given how many people ignore the jury duty notice ( jury no-show rates in some parts of California are around 45%, according to a recent article) and many bailiffs are elected, and a scorched-earth response would be inappropriate. be extremely unpopular.

This is also not necessary. Failure to appear is somewhat built into the process: Courts call a lot of people for potential service, but most citizens never take the time to serve on a jury—a recent survey shows that only about 27% of U.S. adults report having served on a jury in their lifetime .

None of this means that you will necessarily escape all legal consequences for ignoring the jury letter. Where you live has a lot to do with the consequences you may face. There are more than 3,000 counties in the country, each of which has a court system, and some counties do not have a system for dealing with unresponsive jurors. Some will give it up the first time and take the second incident of failure to perform jury duty more seriously. In some places, a missed jury summons may result in you having to appear before the judge to explain yourself. A warrant may be issued. You may be fined. You could possibly be sent to prison. But don’t sweat so much.

Will you be thrown in jail if you don’t show up for jury duty?

It sometimes happens that a person is sent to jail for failing to perform jury duty, but this is extremely rare. This is such a rare occurrence that when it happens, it can attract national attention and lead to backlash from a judge.

When many district courts do not “set an example” for someone, as in the above case, it often appears that the goal of many district courts is to create the impression of serious consequences, but in reality they are not followed through. As the California Judicial Council’s Failure to Appear Toolkit states, “the most important predictor of response to jury summons is whether potential jurors believe that failure to appear will result in negative consequences,” while acknowledging that “sending delinquent jurors to jail has not been field tested by the San Joaquin County Superior Court or any other superior court in California and is not recommended as a method of punishment.”

Bottom line: Even if nothing happens to you, avoiding jury duty is still a bad idea. Yes, “we’ll hold you in contempt” is probably bragging, but when the state is on the rampage and could lock you in a cage, ignoring it is still a bad idea. Ultimately, responding to a jury summons is the only way to ensure that you won’t suffer any consequences, you’ll be able to get out of it fairly easily, and chances are you won’t be selected to serve on a jury anyway. Moreover, this is actually correct.