We've researched exactly what 287 counties allow — the real rules, the real forms, the real addresses. Pick your county and we'll show you every option it actually recognizes, not just one.
Why your name came up, why there are rules about being excused, who actually decides, and why the county next door answers the same question differently.
A jury summons feels personal. It isn't. Courts build a pool by merging two big public lists — registered voters, and people holding a driver's license or state ID — and then drawing names from it at random.
So the honest answer to why me? is that you registered to vote, or you have a license, and a computer drew your name. There is nothing on your record and nothing to appeal. It also means the court is not offended by your asking to be excused — it summons far more people than it needs, precisely because a large share won't be able to serve.
A jury is meant to be a cross-section of the community it is drawn from. If anyone could opt out just by asking, the people left serving would be whoever found it easiest to take a week off work — a sample of people with spare time, which is not a cross-section of anything.
So the law names the specific reasons a court recognizes for excusing you from jury duty: age, a medical condition, caring for someone, active military service, having served recently. If one of those is your situation, the jury office can usually deal with it without involving a judge — you name the reason and send whatever your county asks for.
If your situation is not one of those, the law does not stop there. The list ends with a general phrase — undue hardship, or good cause — meant to cover whatever the named reasons missed. Nothing about that one is automatic. A person reads your request and decides, and all they have to go on is how you describe it.
In most counties the jury office handles the straightforward requests itself and passes anything arguable to a judge. That is why the same request can come back in two days or take three weeks, and why what you write matters more than how much of it there is.
There is no penalty for asking. If a court refuses your request, you serve — exactly as you would have if you had never asked. That is the whole downside.
Not answering the summons is a different thing altogether. That is not a refused request, it is a missed court date, and it carries consequences of its own — ones that have nothing to do with whatever reason you had for not wanting to go.
This is the part almost nobody expects, and it's the reason generic advice fails. Jury excusal is set by state statute and then administered county by county, so the same ground can be routine in one courthouse and unavailable in the next.
Three Missouri counties were asked the same question on the same day this month, and gave three different answers about whether an excusal is permanent. Get this wrong and you don't just lose — you often lose the deadline too. That is what the county pages are for.
What a jury excuse request has to contain, who has to write it, where it goes, by when, and whether a clerk or a judge decides it — most of that is on no page anywhere. It takes asking. So we asked.
Every confirmed one is recorded with which office answered and on what date, and you can read that part free. You could do this for your own county — it is a phone call and a wait. At the end of it you would have one county’s answer.
The first two are free and need no account, no sign-up and no email address. You only pay if you want what comes next, and you see the price before you do.
Your state, then your county. Nothing to fill in, nobody to register with.
FreeListed one by one, including the ones that cost you nothing. Each says whether we have confirmed it with the court itself, and on what date.
FreeWho has to write it, what has to be in it, where it goes, and by when. Buy a document afterwards and this $4.97 comes off its price.
$4.97We format it the way that court expects — and only for the 55 counties whose jury office has told us what that court actually wants. Everywhere else this page stays free, because we will not charge you to prepare a document for a process nobody has confirmed. Step 3 tells you which one you are in.
$9.97 – $19.97287 counties across 14 states. Every excuse your county allows is named on its page, along with whether we have confirmed it with the court itself, and on what date.
Age, military service, caregiving, school enrollment, medical conditions — courts recognize several different reasons. Which of them a county accepts, what each one requires, and who has to write it varies from county to county. Your county's page shows the excuses that county recognizes, and says which of them we have confirmed with the county itself.
Most states excuse you automatically once you're old enough — commonly 70, but 75 in Ohio and higher in places. Usually a checkbox, no argument needed.
Served recently? Some counties disqualify or exempt you for a period afterward — 12 months in some, 24 or 36 in others. Your county's page says whether yours names it, and over what period.
Where a county names active duty as a ground, a copy of your current orders normally settles it. Your county's page says whether yours names it, and where the orders go.
Courts take a documented condition seriously — but only if the note says the particular things that court asks for. Most notes get returned because they say the wrong thing, not because the condition isn't real.
You're the only available care for a child or dependent, and no affordable alternative exists. Counties differ sharply on the age of the child and on what counts as unavailable.
Named by a minority of counties, and often narrowly — Florida's applies only between 18 and 21, and Los Angeles prints on the summons that student status does not qualify. Your county's page says whether yours names it at all.
The most commonly needed reason — and the one courts scrutinize most closely. We'll show you what your county actually requires and help you make the strongest honest case.
If your county doesn't name a specific category that fits your situation, some still allow a broader "good cause" request, decided case by case.
Some counties won't accept a mailed request at all. Where a county decides it in person, its page says so and offers Talking Points for Judge ($14.97) rather than a letter. If it requires a phone call first, we provide a Call Script ($9.97). If financial hardship there only counts toward a reschedule, we provide a Postponement Letter ($14.97) instead of selling you a document that won't work.
What your county actually does — $4.97. Most counties publish nothing that answers the question people actually have, so we ask them. Your county's page names every excuse free of charge, and shows free which of them we have confirmed with that county and on what date. The $4.97 shows you what they said: what each excuse requires, who has to write it, where it goes and by when. It is credited in full against any document on the page, so if you buy one it costs you nothing. Where we have not confirmed a county ourselves, we say so and we do not charge for it.
Add-ons, offered alongside a document rather than sold on their own: an Employer Verification Letter ($9.97) for your employer to complete, and a Documentation Prep Checklist ($4.97) listing what to have ready if the court asks for proof.
JuryFree is not a law firm, and we're not attorneys — we don't provide legal advice, and nothing on this site should be treated as legal advice. What we do is research: we've gone county by county, state by state, and found out exactly what each court actually allows when it comes to requesting an excusal from jury service, and what process they expect you to follow.
We put that information in front of you in plain language, and give you simple tools to help you present your own situation the way your specific court expects to see it. The facts and the words are always yours. If your situation calls for real legal advice or representation, please talk to a licensed attorney in your state.