On Call for Jury Duty

[Los-Angeles]

What is the name of your state? California
I'm on call for jury duty and have to check in the night before (for 5 nights) to see if I must appear the next day. When people check in to see if they must appear, are they chosen on a first-call basis, or have people already been pre-chosen? I check in late in the night, and so far I have not been chosen for the first 3 days of being on call for jury duty.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

What is the name of your state? California
I'm on call for jury duty and have to check in the night before (for 5 nights) to see if I must appear the next day. When people check in to see if they must appear, are they chosen on a first-call basis, or have people already been pre-chosen? I check in late in the night, and so far I have not been chosen for the first 3 days of being on call for jury duty.

Your call-in should have nothing to do with it.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state? California
I'm on call for jury duty and have to check in the night before (for 5 nights) to see if I must appear the next day. When people check in to see if they must appear, are they chosen on a first-call basis, or have people already been pre-chosen? I check in late in the night, and so far I have not been chosen for the first 3 days of being on call for jury duty.

The message you receive when you call in will tell you if you must appear or not. More jurors are selected than needed and the number whittled down through questioning.

https://www.cand.uscourts.gov/juror-frequently-asked-questions/

 

[cbg]

At least in my state, which I grant you is not yours, all potential jurors are pre-assigned to a group. This assignment happens at the time you are first called for jury duty. When you call in the day before, whether you need to come in or not is done by group. Either everyone in group A comes in or no one in group A comes in, and so on for groups B, C and however other many groups there are.

As I said, I am not in your state but I believe this is representative.

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state? California
I'm on call for jury duty and have to check in the night before (for 5 nights) to see if I must appear the next day. When people check in to see if they must appear, are they chosen on a first-call basis, or have people already been pre-chosen? I check in late in the night, and so far I have not been chosen for the first 3 days of being on call for jury duty.

It doesn't matter when you check in (as long as you do it before the deadline) - the names have already been chosen for the next day.

 

[quincy]

You just need to be available for the 5-10 days in case you are called (i.e., other potential jurors eliminated).

More information (includes information on Covid):
https://www.cand.uscourts.gov/jury/

 

[FlyingRon]

Every time I've been summoned for jury duty, I never got past the "call in the night before" stage. One time with federal court, I got the "you can stop calling" after three days. Our state court here told me after the first call in that I wasn't going to be needed.

 

[Zigner]

You just need to be available for the 5-10 days in case you are called (i.e., other potential jurors eliminated).

More information (includes information on Covid):
https://www.cand.uscourts.gov/jury/

I don't think the OP is waiting for a Fed. Court call-up. I suspect this is a lower court and the OP would need to log on to the court's website for more info...

 

[Los-Angeles]

Civil courthouse in Santa Monica, CA. I'm also wondering if I'm equally likely to get called for a Thursday or Friday, compared to a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Is there a higher demand for jury pools during the early days of the week?

 

[zddoodah]

When people check in to see if they must appear, are they chosen on a first-call basis, or have people already been pre-chosen?

Neither. You should have a group number. When you call, you'll need to input your group number. Whether your group gets called will depend on the extent to which jurors will possibly be needed for trials starting the next day.

I check in late in the night, and so far I have not been chosen for the first 3 days of being on call for jury duty.

Congrats.

I'm also wondering if I'm equally likely to get called for a Thursday or Friday, compared to a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Is there a higher demand for jury pools during the early days of the week?

Only someone who works or practices regularly at the SaMo courthouse will be able to answer this intelligently. Last time I was on call for jury duty (not at SaMo), when I checked in on Wednesday to see if I'd have to report on Thursday, I was told that my service was complete. Larger cases sometimes start trial on Friday, but they're not usually ready for jury selection until the following week because there are usually pretrial motions to be heard, which doesn't require the jury.

 

[quincy]

I don't think the OP is waiting for a Fed. Court call-up. I suspect this is a lower court and the OP would need to log on to the court's website for more info...

You’re right.

Here is a link to jury information for the Santa Monica Courthouse: https://www.lacourt.org/courthouse/juror info/sm

Los-Angeles can direct any jury service questions to the Santa Monica Courthouse jury personnel at (310) 255-1961, Monday-Friday, 11-12 am and 2-4 pm.

Los-Angeles apparently is on a 5-day standby and could be called for jury service any day (or now, I guess, either tomorrow or Friday). I don’t see any Court closure for this week.

 

[not2cleverRed]

Civil courthouse in Santa Monica, CA. I'm also wondering if I'm equally likely to get called for a Thursday or Friday, compared to a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Is there a higher demand for jury pools during the early days of the week?

All know is that when I was on call for jury at that court, getting called in, even late in the week, does not guarantee that you will come particularly close to being on a jury. But you're still stuck there for day anyhow.

 

[quincy]

All know is that when I was on call for jury at that court, getting called in, even late in the week, does not guarantee that you will come particularly close to being on a jury. But you're still stuck there for day anyhow.

I was called in for jury duty only once, and the other selected jurors and I sat in a jury room before trial for 4+ hours. The room had a malfunctioning air conditioner (on what would become a 90+ degree day) and the coffee maker was broken. We were all miserable. Finally, sometime after noon, the judge came in and said we must be a pretty intimidating group because the guy decided to settle. So we were released.

 

[cbg]

MA has a one-day, one trial limit. If you call and you don't have to report the next day, you're done. However, the last time I was called (I don't know if it's still this way or not - it's been a few years) if you're told not to report then you can be called for service again as soon as one year, whereas if you report (whether you end up on a jury or not) you're done for three.

 

[Los-Angeles]

All I know is that when I was on call for jury at that court, getting called in, even late in the week, does not guarantee that you will come particularly close to being on a jury. But you're still stuck there for day anyhow.

I've had a different experience there. I've had to report 2 out of 2 times (over the last 4 years) to the Santa Monica courthouse. My appearance days wound up being Monday the first time, and Tuesday on the second occasion. I now, have only one more day to check in to see if I get called in. With my luck, I'll probably have to appear on Friday.

Both times I got directed to go to a courtroom, and each time eventually had my name called to sit in one of the juror seats. Once I got dismissed. The other time I got stuck for 7 days serving as a juror. My impression was that the lawyers just wanted to get rid of people in their 20's and early 30's.