Contemplating skipping out on jury duty? Beware: The Santa Barbara County Superior Court recently implemented a tougher program, penalizing people who willfully fail to appear for jury duty.
The program is designed to systematically track down county residents who don’t respond to their jury duty summonses and to enforce state-approved penalties, including fines or even jail time.
On July 17, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Art Garcia called an “order to show cause” calendar for 15 county residents who have failed to respond to two prior jury summons and one formal letter to appear for jury duty.
“We want to make sure that those citizens who follow the rules and report when called understand that we are enforcing the rules against the others who willfully fail to appear,” Garcia said in a press release.
Each person called is given an opportunity to explain to the judge why he or she failed to appear in court or to contact the jury office in response to his or her summonses and warning letter.
People who fail to respond to two jury summonses will be personally served with an order stating that they must come to court for an “order to show cause” hearing, where they can explain why they shouldn’t be fined. Failure to appear at the hearing results in the county issuing a warrant for an arrest.
When the first jury summons arrives, if the recipient has a valid reason for postponing service or a legal reason to be excused, it can be written on the summons and mailed back to the court. A person will only be contacted if his or her request is denied or if more information is needed to process the request.
The court will be hearing “order to show cause” calendars twice each month.
For more information or to learn the date of the next hearing, contact Lori Hornbrook, judicial services supervisor in Santa Maria, at 614-6425.
For more information, on the Santa Barbara County Superior Court system, www.visitsbcourts.org.
This article appears in Jul 24-31, 2008.