The last time I was summoned for jury duty it was mid-week in January, and I made a point of telling the lawyers during questioning that I would have to be home before sunset on Friday. They were not concerned (and I was picked for the jury, and they settled the case an hour later so it ended up not mattering). A friend was recently seated on a jury where the trial ran longer than anticipated and they convened court on Saturday. My understanding is that they were told, not asked, about this scheduling. This made me wonder how one ought to handle this as a juror. I would hope that the answer is not "always try to get out of jury duty" because this is an important civic obligation that we should take seriously if we can do it without violating halacha.
So my question is: how should a prospective juror handle a trial that might run into Shabbat? What kinds of accommodations might be available?
Answer
I was in a jury pool on a winter Friday and told the bailiff that I would need to leave early. The judge brought up the issue publicly and said that she would not want me to miss out on such an important privilege because of my religious requirements. She dismissed the entire pool at 3:00. Needless to say, I was highly popular that day.
No comments:
Post a Comment