Our firm believes that every citizen should serve as a trial juror to safeguard everyone’s liberty, rights, and property. Most jurors on criminal or civil cases find their experiences rewarding and agree to serve again. During hard economic times, however, many who are summoned to jury service may face severe fiscal insecurity. If you believe jury duty will harm you financially, you can ask a judge to excuse you from service. Here are some examples:

• You are unemployed and need to look for work.
• You were recently employed and cannot take time off now.
• You will miss a mortgage payment because of lost time at work.
• Your employer, who used to pay for jury-service days, can no longer afford to.

There’s a proviso: When the economy recovers, you accept the call to serve as a juror.