“Dear PoPville,
I seem to have run into a new form of DC bureaucratic dysfunction. Last week, I received a summons to appear in person for jury duty at the DC Superior Court at the end of April — a week before the earliest I would be eligible to get the Covid vaccine needed to appear for in-person jury duty safely. The court’s announced policy (which still appears on its website) is to routinely allow deferrals of up to 90 days, but the staff there tell me they’ve disabled the ability to request deferrals during the pandemic and are requiring all jurors to show up in person on the date assigned, no exceptions, and won’t even entertain any requests otherwise. The jury services office says that they “will practice under the CDC guidelines,” although it’s hard to imagine how forcing dozens of potential jurors to gather together in a room all day could actually do so.
So I seem to be stuck between two different arms of the DC government:
the superior court, which is telling me I need to appear in person for a large indoor gathering (for at least one full day and possibly for several days), and the mayor’s office, which says I’m not eligible for the vaccine needed to do safely (both for myself and for other jurors and court staff). A short deferral for those of us not yet eligible to be vaccinated would likely be enough, but I can’t seem to get through to anyone willing or able to address this. It doesn’t seem like anyone has thought this through, unless the government is actually trying to endanger people. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Any suggestions on how to convince the government that it might not be a wise idea to force a group of random people from across the District to spend all day huddled in a room together when there are still a few weeks to go before they can all be vaccinated?
The summons makes very clear that this is requiring jurors to report to the third floor of the courthouse in person, as does the bare-bones response I got from the jury services office when I tried asking about deferrals (and was separately told over the phone that they’re not allowing any deferrals during the pandemic, so this isn’t just me): “I regret to inform you that your request to defer your service date is denied at this time. The courts will practice under the CDC guidelines. Please feel free to visit our website at www.dccourts.gov to view our safety precautionary actions.””