Court's ability to get things right does not inspire confidence... - Nothing to See Here — LiveJournal

I'm not going to ignore it because the consequences for me of committing any crime are potentially much worse than for you.

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That's an interesting thought. Is it (would it be) a crime if you do not appear for jury duty -- when you are not eligible to participate?

IIRC they get lists for jury duty from DMV registration.

FYI -- if you were in San Mateo County, all you'd have to do is mark a check box :D

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I believe it is a crime for me not to respond to the summons, even if I am not eligible to serve.

It's odd that I just got one now, after having lived here for 6.5 years. I suppose it's just random chance, perhaps.

It's also odd that they got my name wrong! ... since my name's definitely not wrong on my driver's license, so DMV records are presumably right. Similarly, if they got it from the county clerk (licensing/certification of marriage), they would have the right name for me. I ... just don't understand how they could have my name screwed up like that.

Re just marking a checkbox, if I were to respond that I am ineligible for some other reason (e.g. not being a resident of Santa Clara county, not yet being 18, or almost any of the other reasons), I would not have to provide documentation! I would only have to check a box and (for some of them) fill in a couple of details.

If I were someone trying to lie ... would I not just check one of the other boxes? Why add extra security checks to the verification of one of them and not others?

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Oh well. Lame!

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The amusing thing is, holding a foreign passport doesn't disprove US citizenship. :>

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Yes, I thought of that, but ... really ... who am I to disabuse them of that fantastically stupid assumption? :)

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Wait a second - they got your name wrong. Therefore, even if you don't respond, the person they would charge with a crime does not exist.

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See my "reasonable doubt" comment. :) I suspect strongly that if your name is Raymond Super Luxury Yacht, and you get summoned as Raymond Super Yacht Luxury ... that if you tried to say, "Oh, well, it wasn't me. That's not my name," they'd say that a reasonable person would consider it obvious that they meant you, and that you were deliberately trying to evade the summons and hold you in contempt or something.

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Yep, they get lists from voter registration and from DMV so if you have both, you're in twice (I've been asked to serve 3 different times in the past 7 years to my knowledge) and they don't scrub the list until you get two notifications within a year. With those odds, it was likely that mavjop was bound to get one due to the DMV.

It is very odd that the names were switched.

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Strange things are afoot at the Superior Court of California.

Edited at 2007-11-22 07:27 pm (UTC)

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Was it really served to you if it didn't have your name on it? :P

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I think I could reasonably expect to assume it is for me when it has all 4 of my names on it (first, 2 middle, last), just in jumbled order. I don't think I could say that I have reasonable doubt.

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