Jury Duty Advice

At some point during your career as a nurse, you will probably be called for jury duty. Until recently, nurses, doctors, lawyers and the like were typically dismissed from jury duty because of the nature of their work. That is no longer the case. Almost no one can get out of jury duty anymore, regardless of his or her work or home situation.

You can delay jury duty, but you cannot avoid it completely. Note: Proof of service must be provided to be paid for the day(s). Please see NYPNU Contract Article XViii, Section 4. 

NYPNU's Advice on Jury

1. Jury duty rules and regulations are going through a lot of transformations. The rules that you followed just a few years ago may not be the same now. Read the jury notices carefully and don't assume anything. Jury duty procedure is also not uniform. What your friend had to do in Nassau County can be vastly different from the jury duty procedure in Manhattan or Westchester.
2. When you receive your first jury duty notice you do have the right to postpone the duty. For example, on June 1st you receive a notice to call-in to see if you need to serve as a juror on June 20th. You know you have vacation from June 23rd - June 29th. It would be a very good idea to fill out the paperwork to postpone your jury duty. If you're called to serve as a juror, you might very well have a case that lasts several days or longer - which could intrude on your vacation. Better to play it safe and postpone. You'll probably get another notice in a month or two when you have no vacation days planned.
3. You only can postpone once, maybe twice, so make it count. If you receive a jury notice on June 1st and are ordered to call-in to find out if you need to come in to court and serve as a juror on or around June 20th, and you have no vacation plans anytime in June or early July, then it would be best to do the jury duty and NOT postpone it. When you postpone jury duty you are dealing with the unknown. They might send you a notice in 4 weeks, or 8 weeks or 19 weeks. You can't predict when the notice will come, but you can count on them sending a notice at some point. The second jury notice might interfere with future plans that you have made. Do not postpone jury duty merely to avoid the inevitable. You might discover that what could have been a minor inconvenience in June is a horrible conflict in November when you had plans to visit your family in California (for example). And certainly do not postpone jury duty because your manager tells you to!
4. The Hospital will pay for a "jury duty day" ONLY if you are scheduled to work on the day you are scheduled for jury duty. Read that last sentence again - it's important. If you are scheduled to work on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and you have jury duty on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday - then you will work at the hospital for three days and then go to jury duty for 3 days. The hospital won't reimburse you for anything. Jury duty will be considered your "civic duty" and you will be expected to work at the hospital regardless of the fact that you will be working (3 days at the hospital as a nurse, 3 days at the court as a juror) 6 days straight. Unfortunately, this isn't about contract language, it's about the law, which we are trying to change, but for now, this is what we have to deal with.
5. To be paid, you must coordinate jury duty on the same days you are scheduled to work.
   1. First and foremost, avoid working the weekends right before and after jury duty (this doesn't always apply to night shift nurses). Switch with someone if you have to. Most jury duty lasts for 3-4 days. But if you get assigned a trial, you might have jury duty for a week or more. If that happens and you are scheduled to work a weekend then you will be going to jury duty on the weekdays and reporting to work at the hospital on the weekend(s). You will not be excused from your hospital duty.
   2. Schedule your shifts at the same time as your jury duty so that you are paid. If you report to jury duty on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and had scheduled yourself to work at the hospital on that same Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then you will be paid your regular salary and you will be excused from work at the hospital. This is the best case scenario.
   3. If you're a night shift nurse, plan your work schedule the same way. The hospital will release night shift nurses from their duty if they had jury duty before their shift or after their shift. However, if you are supposed to work on Saturday night through Sunday morning, and you have jury duty on Monday, then you will have to go to work. And then report to jury duty on Monday.
6. Do not plan on dealing with how jury duty is going to fit with your work schedule a day or two before you actually report to jury duty. You must plan your work schedule as early as possible. With proper strategy and forethought, you will probably be paid for jury duty and not have to go to the hospital to work.

As with anything and everything related to work, call or email the NYPNU office if you have questions about jury duty.