I have never been called in for jury duty. Most people tell me to thank my lucky stars that I haven't been forced to miss work to toil in a jury pool, but I think I'd like to try it at least once.

One of my buddies was on jury duty here in Stearns County over the last two weeks. On his last Friday he finally got called in to court but only 24 of the 40 jurors who were called actually bothered to show up, so those who actually did brave some bad weather to come in were sent home.

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The judge in the case apologized to those who did take the time to show up and admonished those who did not. He said those who did not show up would be sent a letter asking why they did not appear.

If their excuse was deemed sufficient by the judge they would see their two-week jury duty clock reset with them potentially being called back into service during that time.

If the judge did not deem their excuse worthy, he would issue a warrant for their arrest. Yes, you read that right... you can be ARRESTED for failing to appear for jury duty. It's no joke!

Per mnd.uscourts.gov:

A juror who fails to report for jury service and was not excused by the Court may be ordered to appear before the Court and show cause for why he or she failed to comply with the summons for jury service. Failure to appear before the Court or failure to show good cause for failing to report for jury service may result in a $1,000 fine, up to three days imprisonment, order to perform community service or any combination thereof. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1864(b), 1866(g).

I am no lawyer but I would strongly advise against skipping out on jury duty!

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