court summons. grand jury policy?
Caroliso
352 Posts
I'm updating our jury duty policy and wondered how people handle the following:
(1) employee summoned to testify in a trial
(2) grand jury participation: do you cover same as an actual trial? regardless of how its set up? (some states require a certain number of days a week, other require every day for a set period)
(3) other police business -- employee required to attend a line-up to pick out an assailant, etc.
We do have a personal days policy so that might be sufficient for (1) and (3), which don't seem to fit in with jury duty.
(1) employee summoned to testify in a trial
(2) grand jury participation: do you cover same as an actual trial? regardless of how its set up? (some states require a certain number of days a week, other require every day for a set period)
(3) other police business -- employee required to attend a line-up to pick out an assailant, etc.
We do have a personal days policy so that might be sufficient for (1) and (3), which don't seem to fit in with jury duty.
Comments
2) We would allow this as "free" time off. However, recently one of my own ees was asked to more or less "volunteer" for a lengthy grand jury commitment. I didn't realize it worked that way; I thought grand jurors were summoned through the usual jury summons process. Evidently that's not always the case. So I basically discouraged it, but if she had done it we would've have allowed free time off.
3) They would have to use their own leave (again, unless it was work-related, e.g. assaulted/robbed at work).
>using their own vacation leave only if that
>employee is summoned to testify as part of
>employer business. Otherwise, they must use
>their own leave.
>
>2) We would allow this as "free" time off.
>However, recently one of my own ees was asked to
>more or less "volunteer" for a lengthy grand
>jury commitment. I didn't realize it worked that
>way; I thought grand jurors were summoned
>through the usual jury summons process.
>Evidently that's not always the case. So I
>basically discouraged it, but if she had done it
>we would've have allowed free time off.
>
>3) They would have to use their own leave
>(again, unless it was work-related, e.g.
>assaulted/robbed at work).
Whirlwind: I've never heard of anyone "volunteering" for grand jury duty. I've been on a grand jury and it follows the same pattern and regular jury duty...it's just for a longer period of time.
You need to decide where you want to draw the line. Suppose an EE is sueing some third party and wants to attend every deposition and every court appearance, etc - all associated with a case they have generated.
Do you want to treat that sort of thing the same way you would if they were called as a witness to a third party lawsuit?
Do you want to or need to differentiate between civil and criminal proceedings?
As to Jury time, whether it be the Grand type or normal - how long can you afford for the EE to paid while serving? Some Grand Juries are for extended periods of time - can you pay and EE for a 90 day period?
We limit the paid time to 1 week, after that, they are welcome to use their vacation time until it is gone, and we will hold a job for them, but will not pay past the first week.
We do not ahve a policy for being a witness or being called to a line-up. I suspect we would not pay - what would you do if your EE was the one being charged? Do you want to pay for that stuff?
My judgement call would be no pay for any of it, except the jury duty - and limit that.
Regarding required court appearances, I feel for people who didn't choose the course of action but I think we will proceed with requiring folks to use their paid time off available. I don't want to get into making the kinds of distinctions Marc outlines: civil vs. criminal, EE as defendant vs. EE as witness, EE-initiated court case vs. not, etc.
Regarding jury duty, the company feels it is our duty to encourage EEs to fulfill civic responsibility like jury duty, regardless of their own ability to cover the cost, and is willing to pay. Instances so far have been rare. My job is to make them aware of the potential cost, should it happen.
As a company, we will pay employees there regular wage minus any stipend they get from the court for a period of two weeks for jury duty only. I would include grand jury in the interpretation of our policy.
2. We just had a high level employee come back from grand jury selection and she said the judge asked for "volunteers" first. They had enough so she didn't have to serve. We handle grand jury the same as regular jury.
3. same as #1 above