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Its been like that for a long time, they'll take you if you have no where to go.

Sometimes clauses like this are included specifically for public employees. We’re paid our full daily rate for time missed for jury duty, and there’s always a public outcry if there’s any perception of getting something ‘free’.

Heck, it’s not always even public. Sometimes it’s the folks in your own shop who bitch because they had to cover your shift and now you get the day off.

Often, they make rules like this apply to everyone equally (at least on paper), so we can’t claim we’re being discriminated against solely for being civil servants.

Assuming you cant get busted, you won the free day off lottery.

You need the slip of paper that says you were on jury duty in a lot of places, otherwise you won’t get paid for the day off. For most 9-5s, you’d usually just go to work as scheduled if you didn’t actually have jury duty

That makes a lot of sense. As someone who gets paid hourly, this didn’t occur to me. Thanks for the insight :)

All's I know is the second you go in to jury duty and scan that barcode, that message is no longer valid and you are signed in. I willing went to jury duty because it was basically a day off even after getting that message and asked about it. So if you still want to serve cause your job sucks and you need a day off, you can. Chances are that they have few cases and may dismiss you anyway if you just need that paper saying you did the thing.

Right?! Sadly, I’m still working tomorrow. No day off. But at least I get money instead of negative money from having to pay for parking.

Ah, makes sense. My job is at a small business so I wouldn’t have needed any slip.

That’s good to know. Thanks :)

That’s actually kinda cool.

i went like a month ago and they only had two cases they needed people for that day so must of us got dismissed by lunchtime

I went like a month ago after deciding "well technically I did have to tell work for coverage reasons". They only had one case, but the defendant wasn't available and they dismissed the entire room. Then I got my actual day off plus the paper proving I went. It was good and I later went on to get a better job.

I don't work for the courts, but I interact with courts (from MDJ/County/State/Federal) every day.

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Jury selection, for the most part in PA, is a demand for 8 or 12 people.

Out of a pool of 50, on average 10-15 will have personal conflicts (aka they know someone directly involved - be it attorney, ptf/def, arresting officer).

This takes the jury pool to 35.

10-15 will be, for lack of the better word, unreliable (i.e. don't trust the police, have a really bad record, which believe it or not knocks your credibility)

This takes the jury pool to 20. Depending on the type of case, the attorneys will weed people out by age/race/sex/assumption of political party, bringing the realistic jury pool down to ~15 people.

The reason for the highlighted part, is some of these remaining ~15 people, frankly, will just not show up. So if you can go, they desperately want you to go to make the jury pool more diverse.

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I've seen jury selection as fast as a few hours, up to a week.

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EDIT: This is a vast generalization by the way. Jury pools are not limited to 50 people, but the numbers usually even out to be the same percentage wise.

Yea, I got summoned during the summer, right? So, while the prosecutor and defendant’s attorney is doing their jury striking or whatever, I’m zoning off thinking ok, it’s only 11am, I can get lunch, go home, do laundry, etc. While I’m in my “best day ever” thoughts, my name gets called. Got stuck in that for 3 days. My boss was NOT HAPPY, lol.

Have you ever seen the “Jury Duty” episode of The Office?

If you have Jury duty just show up.

There are Jury Duty scams happening so make sure your calling/texting to an official number.

https://www.phila.gov/services/crime-law-justice/report-for-jury-duty/

https://www.courts.phila.gov/juryservice/

That’s really interesting. Thanks for the explanation :)

Yes haha :)

Good to know! Thanks!

Have you ever seen the film Jury Duty starring one Pauly Shore?

I just served on a week long jury. A lot of stuff (procedures, attendance) seemed to be based on public employment? There was a near riot when we didn't have to report one day, because no one knew how this was handled as a municipal employee.

Wait, why if you have a free day off? Do you need to be at the office ?

Some people don’t have the benefit of PTO, and so don’t get paid if they aren’t at work

They are paid hourly, probably does not get paid for taking a day off for jury duty (not usually something companies pay for employees not considered "full time")

I’m hourly, not salaried. My boss and I decided to play jury-chicken and keep me on for tomorrow just in case I wasn’t needed. So yeah, no day off. But at least I won’t lose income.

You both are correct. For some reason I thought the FSLA required PAID time off for Jury Duty. It requires unpaid and the courts can decide to pay you if selected.

Sorry, I've only been on a jury once in my life and my job at the time paid me for it. I see now I just had a convenient employer.

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Yup, I've been called in numerous times over the years... Some jobs will pay, some won't. The one that hurt me the most was 3 days where I was working full time hours, but not technically considered full time by my employer, so I didn't get paid.... Had to pick up overnight shifts to make up the difference... Terrible week. I was not a juror you wanted on your case.. I was cranky

Yea, I understand now. I misunderstood the Labor Laws around Jury Duty. The law is you are required to allow unpaid time off if necessary, so in theory you could've taken the day off and not get fired or reprimanded for it. For some reason I thought it was a paid requirement.

Paid would have been soooo niiice :)

Wow, that's so unfortunate. It doesn't help that the courts only pay a few dollars per DAY for each day served. I was on a criminal trial for 2 or 3 days and I think they paid us something like either $18 per day or $18 total.

Haha indeed.

Some employers will give you paid time off, completely separate from your vacation, if you have jury duty. I think this is their way of saying “If you are collecting paid time off for Jury Duty from your employer, you need to actually be here for Jury Duty.”

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It protects you for unpaid leave for Federal Jury Duty and in PA you get the added benefit of protection for unpaid jury duty for State/Local Jury Duty

That makes sense. All of you lovely people commenting have helped me not only understand what this email meant, but also how many benefits I don’t get having a non-salaried job lol

Welcome to wage world babyyyyyyyyy

Yeah. It’s crazy how much easier life gets if you work for a company that treats its employees well. My company makes you forfeit the check that the court gives you (the $9/day or whatever it is), but in turn, they give you the full day’s wage.

I used to but we had to give them the check we got the city. It was like $9.

That’s badass :)

I'm so jealous. I work a 9-5 so technically I'm paid but my billable hours will suffer. Think that's a valid excuse for getting out of it?

I always thought it was weird that you got paid for jury duty. Why bother with such a small amount? It’s kind of a slap in the face considering not all employers pay you for the time you have to take off (I’m poor but I make more than $9/day) and then pay for parking/transportation on top of that loss. I’m sure there’s a reason, but I have a feeling it probably doesn’t apply to my employment situation.

Having never worked a standard 9-5, I have no idea. Maybe someone else here will have some insight :)

Lol. Thanks :)

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Employers are allowed to request that you sign over your jury duty check to them if you are paid for your time off. it's a way to dissuade people from claiming they have jury duty to get free PTO days

If you have already told your job you have jury duty you need to show up to get the check for the day. You can't call and ask the jury office for a check because you didn't show up and now your boss is asking for it as proof that you actually had jury duty.

You lucky bastard, as I type this from the juror bullpen

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Kennedy? Street?

Taking one for the team. Thank you from all of us. I’m so glad I didn’t have to go. May the day go by quickly and not require you to be on a jury.

I got picked and ended up being On Call as well. I just told my company I had jury duty for the day a week earlier and basically got a free day off

Kennedy. Didn’t get chosen thankfully. I dropped off my ballot today so the civic duties canceled out.

You have nothing to concern yourself with here. Just go with the first part and disregard the rest.