Alameda County Denying Childcare as Excuse for Jury Duty
I am parent to a 2.5 and 5 year old and work part time. M and Th I pick them up at 12:30 and 1:30 and am their sole childcare. Fridays my younger one doesn't have school at all and it's just me providing childcare.
I received a Jury duty summons for Alameda county for next week. I submitted a Jury hardship excuse for my summons and was denied. I called the Jury services today and explained my situation. They were able to post phone my service for 3 months since my son does have a doctor appointment on Monday but was told that childcare and school pickup does not count as a hardship and I will be expected to serve in December. This is crazy! Is my husband expected to take off work so I can serve on a jury? Or that I magically find extra childcare? What have other people's experiences been. What are my rights?
Parent Replies
I live in Alameda County, although I haven't had little ones for over a decade. When I used to receive jury summons, there was a checkbox on the paper form for childcare and eldercare and you were automatically excused although they warned you might be asked to show proof. I would mail that in while it still applied to me. I know it's computerized now--don't know if something else has changed. I wonder if there is a different box besides Hardship that you need to find?
I had the same situation. My request was denied online and by phone. During the call with the jury service, I asked if they had childcare at the courthouse or if I could bring my child to sit with me in the courtroom during the trial. They excused me immediately.
My experience has been 50/50 on this but I’m the end we had to have one of us take time off work to cover child care for the jury duty. My husband was able to get an exception when the court was for northern district Ca (San Francisco) and we live in Oakland. At that time I had just started a new job and we had 2 kids in part time daycare- he had to go in person and get the exception on the day of called jury service. In all other cases when I’m alameda county only we have been stuck. But on the bright side at least everyone gets equally targeted
I've wondered about this too and have been told there's nothing to do about it. It's insane that people are expected to take work off if they are self employed/an hourly employee --or to find childcare for their kids.
I'd love to serve on a jury if I had a job where I can be paid for being on jury duty and can easily take the time off--these are state jobs. I had one once and never got called for jury duty while employed:/
It's an inherently unfair system that does not actually get anyone a jury of their peers--esp peers interested in doing a good job. I wish someone would revise the rules. At the very least, people should be able to submit days they're more available and possibly be called on for those days.
How stressful! I can tell you that when I did live in Alameda county that when I was called in the judge released me because if childcare - meaning I couldn’t get out of the original summons but I was able to get excused because of childcare once I was called in.
That's definitely the opposite of what I was told. I got summoned while out on bonding leave with an infant, submitted the hardship request and had to speak to someone over the phone, but they pretty much just said got it, request approved. Pretty sure they postponed being put back in the pool for a year (haven't been called since then) and said they would do this for any primary caregiver for children under 5. I assume because they can't really verify whether or not you're telling the truth about being the primary caregiver but obviously once they hit 5 they should be in school. So unfortunately don't know what your rights are, but that definitely does not seem right what they're doing to you!
Unfortunately that has been my experience too—I couldn't get a hardship excuse even for a nursing baby, which was nuts. The particular judge for the case I was in the jury pool for was known for being a stickler and not accepting any child care excusals. I ended up just telling them (truthfully though possibly a bit embellished!) that I could not possibly be impartial for the case they were presenting because I knew people who had been crime victims and was the mother of a nursing infant so often reacted very emotionally, and the defense removed me from the potential juror pool. It was ridiculous, though. I will say that for all of the post-pandemic summonses, I haven't had to go in at all, so you might luck out and have it be moot.