Something About Jury Duty and Worldcon

[kevin_standlee]

For some reason, I seem to get a jury-duty summons every second year or so just before Worldcon. This time, the summons date is the Wednesday before I leave for Japan. I have applied for a routine deferral to October. Every time I've asked for a deferral before, they've not actually called me again, but just put my name back into the box and called me a year or two later.

Mind you, they still haven't corrected my name in their records, despite me having repeatedly told them that it's "Standlee," not "Stanolee." Typos live forever, it seems.

Comments

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to correct a typo with the EDD for ten years.

My surname doesn't start with an F (they think it's Faoirse).

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Tell them that nobody named Stanolee lives at this address.

My latest summons would also have wreaked havoc had I been going to Japan. Instead, it threatens to wreak havoc on my going to Wisconsin. Extension application, again.

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

I am going to Jury Duty (if they need me) on August 22nd. This is my first time and it will be an interesting experience. Maryland is very strict about Jury Duty and you can't get a deferral easily.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Then they'd bloody well better call you further in advance than six weeks. That's too short a time to ask people not to make plans that would be a nuisance to change.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Seriously? "I have non-refundable airline tickets for a trip I've been planning for two years, at which people are counting on me to do X" wouldn't cut it?

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

I've lived in Austin for 21 years, and I've been called for jury duty only once in all that time, about 10 years ago.

When I moved last year, I moved to the little smidge of Austin that is actually in the county north of Travis (I'm in Williamson county). I haven't been called yet, but a friend who lived in this same location got called regularly from both Williamson and Travis counties. Williamson would tell her she couldn't serve, because she lived in Austin, and Travis county wouldn't let her serve, because she lived in Williamson county. You'd think when the city annexed that little bit of Williamson county, they would have figured that out. Perhaps I won't move from here for a while.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

In California, cities are not permitted to annex across county lines, and maybe that's why.

However, I do know someone here who lives in the really tiny smidge of one city that has the phone numbers (and the different area code) of an adjoining city. She couldn't get service from one company that divided its territory between those cities, as the one for city A wouldn't do it because she had the area code of city B, and the one for city B wouldn't do it because she had the address of city A.

My city is so diffuse, it sprawls into the USPS delivery zones of other cities. We've had city council candidates supposedly exposed as carpetbaggers because their mailing addresses were in other cities.

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

I think that's when I'd ditch the landline altogether.

[fr-john.livejournal.com]

That's ok. Richmond has parts that don't connect to the rest of the city at all.

[jbriggs.livejournal.com]

San Diego annexed parts that are not contiguous by land. Since the city charter mandates they be contiguous there is an eight or ten foot wide corridor down the center of the bay to join the two areas.

[howeird]

As calimac says, they sent the summons to the wrong address. If the name on the summons doesn't match the name on your voter's pamphlet...

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

That's the problem. Alameda County typoed my name in my voter registration, and that's what the court ends up using. I've been trying for some time to get the Registrar of Voters office to fix this. There have been years when I've received two ballots -- one in my right name, and one with the typo. The last time this happened, I called their office and told them that this was a Very Bad Thing and it's a good thing I'm honest. They told me to shred the ballot sent to the wrong name.

The thing is, I'm not adverse to serving on a jury. I just am not generally available during Worldcon season.

[howeird]

Vote early, vote often. :-)

I'm not adverse to serving on a jury
Didn't think you were. I was more concerned with the name being wrong on the public records - it could prevent you from being allowed to vote. But you've explained they have you down both ways.