jury duty - on other side of the island!

[DTisme]

My husband just got a jury summons and when we looked up the address, we discovered it's on the other side of the island! "Drug court" in Kealakekua. I assume he can call to tell them this is an undue burden -- I mean 2.5 hrs each way?? Try THAT on a a multi-day trial. I laughed out loud when I saw it - that would be like, when we lived in San Jose, CA, to drive to Sacramento. Is this crazy or what?

[dayna]

Are there mile boundries? I would for sure call the court clerk and ask. I always thought that there was mile boundries for most courts.

Dayna

[LastTangoInPuna]

Happened to me as well.

In my case they said if I lived more than 70 miles from K-Bay, I could write a letter and be excused. It worked.

[JerryCarr]

Like Tango says, when your commute would be over 70 miles, they offer an automatic exemption. You may, however, choose to serve if you wish, and they pay mileage. If you do take the distance exemption, you must let them know in advance. Unexcused no-shows are added to the "warrant list" and get a nasty surprise if ever pulled over by the cops.

[janet]

Just helped a neighbor through this. The summons form has complete instructions on how to claim the mileage exemption - to whom to address it, what to include in the "request", etc.

It's as easy as posting on Punaweb.

[spunky]

Same thing happened to me and I did the same thing as Tango. Followed the instructions and got the exemption.

[DTisme]

Thanks guys - turns out while I was posting, hubby was reading the line about the 70 miles. Still, what a waste of county funds to not target jury mailings by zip code. You'd think that would be a no-brainer! I guess that's the price we pay for having such a big county!

[KeaauRich]

Same thing happened to me...I mailed in the exemption form but it never got there. I called to confirm receipt and the clerk just excused me over the phone. But I agree, how hard is it to screen mailings by cities or zip codes???

[Bob Orts]

The LAW requires that the jury pool be comprised from the jurisdiction, which means the entire County of Hawaii. To exclude people based on geography will be a defense attorney’s dream. However, the Court can provide exemptions to individual jurors for service based on legally established exemptions, but they are just that, exemptions from serving, not exclusions from being called for service. The Courts would be in violation of Hawaii's Constitution if they divided the County into two separate jurisdictions.

[KeaauRich]

I hear you Bob, but if Hilo folks are going to be automatically exempted from serving in Kona, and Kona folks are going to be automatically exempted from Hilo trials due to distance, it seems to me it would make sense to sort the universe of jurors geographically and try to assign potential jurors to courts near their homes.