Posted by
Bumblebzz
19 yrs ago
I recieved a letter today telling me I have been selected to serve jury duty IF I'm asked to sometime in the future...unless of course I can provide a legit reason for exemption.
Which according to this letter is limited to reasons like illness, instability, or not understanding either Chinese or English.
I'm not a citizen of this country, so why are they asking me to serve jury duty to begin with?
1. I'm 8 mths pregnant.
2. Even after my baby is born, I have no intentions of leaving my baby with a total stranger just so they can have me on a jury.
3. I plan to spend time a couple of months back home at some point this year, but not sure when.
So, how can I "legitimately" become exempt from serving?
I would think being pregnant is enough...am I right?
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I have been called a number of times for Jury duty - you don't need to be a citizen - just a resident - I got my call when I had been here 3 months!
I have received a letter of call 3 times over the 12 years I have been here, the first two times I submitted a letter saying I could not do it because i have 4 young children at home, no helper (which was true) and my husband was a shift worker and rarely in the country. They exempted me from doing it these times, the third time I turned up for selection as all my children were at school then, I had a fulltime job which I got the day off, and I was not selected for jury duty. But because I turned up for selection, I was off the list for a couple of years.
It isn't hard to be let off if you have small children at home - I don't think pregancy is an excuse - but it could set you to be unstable - remember that you have 2 chances to get off - before you are due to appear by writing a letter - they will let you know if you are exempt, and the other on the date of selection - you may not be drawn out of the hat on the day as they oversubscribe, and then you may be able to talk your way out of it if you have a legit reason - although from what I saw - they were pretty tough on excuses. The whole thing was in English and Chinese as the Judge was an English speaker (Australian).
Hope this helps.
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TC
19 yrs ago
Pregnancy in itself isn't a just excuse, but being 8 months pregnant (and not faring too well into the bargain) should be OK. If you happen not to be in HK at the time (and can prove it) then that would also be OK, but if it shows that you booked the travel after the letter arrived then they might consider that as contempt of court. It's bad luck but once you've got the notification you're stuck with it - unless you can prove you have a LEGITIMATE excuse (as opposed to just not wanting to do it) or you are not selected on the day. They generally look kindly on legitimate excuses.
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My sis in law (who was a resident of hkg for 30 yrs) says I should be able to get off with no problem...just call them.
So I'll give that a shot.
I'll call them.
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The judge I had when I wasn't selected (I wanted to be!) was really tough - no excuses was good enough - always he said - "I fit was so important why didn't you write before today to see if you coulod be excused" One woman said she didn't like the sight of blood... he camly replied that "there was unlikely to be any bloodshed in the courtroom, and seeing the case involved bank fraud there would be no pictures of blood" so - tough luck baby!
I would advise you write in before the date of the selection - at least it is in writing then.
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Oh I definately plan on writing a letter, simply because it states that I need to. But I may call too.
Being 8 mths pregnant is not an excuse I'm using, it's a fact.
I'm 4 weeks away from giving birth, and have no intentions of doing anything but getting my baby's room ready & staying off my hugely swollen feet til baby is born.
I highly doubt they would expect me to serve.
Che Mango, I'm not so sure that the teachers excuse was really all that off.
My mom was a 2nd grade teacher (in the U.S). She was always very busy getting class ready every year.
Two weeks before school even started she (and all the other teahcers) would be there getting the class room ready, having meetings and preparing lesson plans, art projetcs etc.
She'd leave for work at 7am & not get home til 7 or 8pm.
Honestly I don't know how she did it...I know I could'nt.
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TC
19 yrs ago
Generally speaking no work-related excuse is considered good enough to get you off jury duty. And being 8 months pregnant IS an excuse - sure, it's a fact too but it's still an excuse - a jolly good excuse. That should be your sole reason (plus the need to care for your new-born baby depending on timing). All the other bits are almost irrelevant - not to you personally but to the legal process.
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I wouldn't panic about it, or get all huffy, - you will probably be excused with not much fuss as they really don't want a juror not turning up one day because they went into labour. But you will continue to be on their list and be called every couple of years if you are here that long..one day you may be able to do it - but then miss out due to the selection process - then they leave you alone for a numbe rof years.
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Cara, shall I pass that info onto them for you? ;)
dimac, me huffy?...nah, mostly at this stage just puffy. ha
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