29 Dec 2024 - AJ
I was reminded of this because I myself got a notice for jury duty this week for a time in the future, and it reminded me of this scam.
Generally speaking, jury commissioner clerks, judges, and law enforcement all realize that prospective jurors are human beings. Some prospective jurors just ignore the summons, some just didn’t get it, while others have brainfarts and just fail to show up. I know because I was one of the people who brainfarted - despite the fact I actually love jury duty! Once I got the nastygram about it, I did what any respectable citizen would do - called them up, apologized, and had them set up a new jury duty summons for me.
In reality, a lot of people don’t show up for jury duty - and judges/jury commissioner offices, especially in urban areas, don’t have the time to issue orders to show cause/bench warrants for people who are not repeat offenders. There are bigger fish to fry than someone whose jury summons may not have shown up in the mail, especially when you have enough of a jury pool without them. (I have been trying to get a study on bench warrants issued in proportion to the amount of people who missed jury duty on purpose or by accident - but all I’m getting is anecdotal information. The general gist is that while you shouldn’t skip jury duty, and some jurisdictions are tougher about enforcing that than others, it’s actually fairly uncommon.)
The reason I advise hanging up - and you should always hang up! - is because I am a civil servant, I have had to do outbound calling to ask for information, and I have been absolutely horrified about how many people gave me sensitive information without verifying that I was who I said I was. I had 2 people in my entire time in that job challenge me - and I was happy to have them verify that I was who I said I was.