To my ex

[Teefies2]

I am sooo glad you called me on Friday afternoon to tell me that you have jury duty on Monday morning, so I'll have to pick up our daughter from school. There's just a couple of problems with your request ...

1) Remember when you got that jury duty notice two months ago? And I told you that you HAVE to go? You ignored it, so guess what - if you don't go this time, you'll be arrested. Sucks to be you.

2) As I recall, jury duty notices - even repeat/makeup ones - arrive in your mailbox a full 30 days before you have to be there. So waiting until the Friday afternoon before to tell me about it doesn't really cut it.

3) I am always willing to pick up our daughter after school, with ADVANCE notice. See, my employer has this funny thing called a SCHEDULE. They schedule us to work certain hours/days and they do this THREE weeks in advance. That's so you can, you know, PLAN. I'm scheduled to work on Monday and I am one of the managers, so it's not like Billy Bob that we hired yesterday can cover my shift.

4) Oh, you're going to lose income on Monday, since you work for yourself? I understand that, jury duty only pays $20 a day. However, you're claiming you're going to lose $1000 by not working that day. And you need me to loan it to you. I call BS. I know for a fact that you make $20 an hour *when you work*, which is not all the time, only when you choose to take a job. So at $20 an hour, for you to lose $1000 in a day, you would have to work 50 hours. Last time I checked, there were only 24 hours in a day. And I don't have an extra $1000 laying around here anyway, so ... to the HELL NO! "Bye Felicia!"

(I will pick up our daughter of course, but I'll have to go into work early ... as in oh-dark-thirty early ... so that I can leave to get her. And I'll have to go back to close the store, since I'm the night manager. Just wanted to put that out there, in case anyone thinks I would leave my daughter stranded just to get back at my ex)

[Slave to the Phone]

Not to mention that he probably won't be picked anyhow. Out here, we call the day before to find out if we have to show up. Then we show up and sit around for a while, listen to a talk about how valuable we are to the judicial system, watch a movie and then get send out for a break.

Sometimes we get sent home after the break because that is when the defendant realizes that this is real and takes a plea bargain. If we don't get sent home then, we go through the jury selection process and get sent out for lunch. After we come back, most of us get sent home because we haven't been picked for actual jury duty.

I get "called" every year and have only been picked once.

My vote is for your ex showing yet again why he's your ex. Can I say inconsiderate butthead without upsetting you?

[Teefies2]

My vote is for your ex showing yet again why he's your ex. Can I say inconsiderate butthead without upsetting you?

Hell no! You would be validating my feelings! Thanks!

[MoonCat]

Wait, Mr. Trying to Get Out of It wants YOU to lend him (read: give him) $1000?? Even if it was true that he would lose that much by going in, it has nothing to do with you. Talk about nerve. Yikes.

Not only was dragging his feet and ignoring it a stupid thing to do, he should really check into the system. I believe there are SOMETIMES hardship exceptions that can be made, assuming you can prove you would truly be harmed by serving. But even if not - not your fault. He's got to grow up and deal with it like a man.

[Teefies2]

Wait, Mr. Trying to Get Out of It wants YOU to lend him (read: give him) $1000?? Even if it was true that he would lose that much by going in, it has nothing to do with you. Talk about nerve. Yikes.

Not only was dragging his feet and ignoring it a stupid thing to do, he should really check into the system. I believe there are SOMETIMES hardship exceptions that can be made, assuming you can prove you would truly be harmed by serving. But even if not - not your fault. He's got to grow up and deal with it like a man.

While I totally agree with you ...... that's the problem. He's never ever grown up. He's 57 years old and still believes that the world owes him a living. I put up with it until our kids reached 21 and then I said F*K this.

Not my problem sweetheart. Deal with it.

[Nunavut Pants]

I believe there are SOMETIMES hardship exceptions that can be made, assuming you can prove you would truly be harmed by serving.

There are. I worked for a company that would not pay salaried employees for any time spent on jury duty, and HR would write a (form) letter to the courts explaining that and that it was a financial hardship. Some people were evidently able to get out of jury duty that way. Fortunately I never had to use that, as I never actually had to even report in person.

[MoonCat]

There are. I worked for a company that would not pay salaried employees for any time spent on jury duty, and HR would write a (form) letter to the courts explaining that and that it was a financial hardship. Some people were evidently able to get out of jury duty that way. Fortunately I never had to use that, as I never actually had to even report in person.

I guess I'm lucky then. I still get paid, as long as I sign over any monies given to me by the court (which is usually just supposed to cover transportation costs; and I buy a monthly bus pass anyway).

[Nunavut Pants]

Yes, that is how my other employers have handled it. But the one did not; they claimed to somehow have had too many people get called out for duty at one point so they implemented this policy to keep it from happening again. (Elephino, I figure they just wanted an excuse.)

[Cia]

In SD you get travel expenses of IIRC a .25 a mile (one way from your house to the county courthouse) for having jury duty and $50 a day if picked for a jury.

My parents are over 70 so they can have the option of not serving anymore. My daughter received the student deferment when she got called up. My DH has never been called up in our county. I've been called up about 10 times so far. Got out of it thrice - 1. in college on the other end of the state 2. living in Texas 3. served within the last two years.

[Slave to the Phone]

So, tell us....did he get picked? If he didn't get picked, did you still have to pick your daughter up or was the whole process so exhausting that he had to go straight home and take a nap?

[Teefies2]

So, tell us....did he get picked? If he didn't get picked, did you still have to pick your daughter up or was the whole process so exhausting that he had to go straight home and take a nap?

LOL I don't actually know. I did pick up my daughter, but I didn't hear from him again on that, so I guess he didn't get picked. Or perhaps, as you stated, he was EXHAUSTED and went home to take a nap, which would then start the whole "failure to appear" cycle again. Luckily, my daughter graduates in 3 weeks, so this will all be over before I have to go through this again

[Sparklyturtle]

We're also paid for mileage in Oregon, but I only live about six blocks from the county courthouse. I'm retired so I'd be willing to serve, but in 2015 I was called but not chosen so I shouldn't be called again until 2017.

If Ex made $1000 a day, losing one day's pay should affect him that much unless he's got a lifestyle that costs him a lot of money. And for that he has no one to blame but himself. The last time I was on jury duty I appeared in the morning, then went home and got right to work. At the time I was working at home doing medical transcription, and I usually worked the late shift, so except for starting later than I usually did I put in time at court and a day's work typing afterward.

[EricKei]

Just saw this one

Shoulda told him you'd spot him the thousand after he paid YOU a thousand for the disruption in your own work schedule, plus a 50% last-minute fee.

[Plague*Star]

I'm sure the $1000 was the $1000 he WOULD have made if he hadn't had to go to jury duty. We've all had days like that, right?