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Thursday, October 25, 2007

How not to avoid jury duty

Here's another story from Minnesota Lawyer's How Not to Avoid Jury Duty file.

An Internet-based company called The Excused Absence Network is peddling $25 jury duty excuse notes that appear to come from doctors or hospitals.

I doubt it's legal, it's definitely not ethical, and it probably doesn't work anyway. Yet the company's owners say they're just helping people do something they would have done anyway.

"Millions of Americans work dead-end jobs, and sometimes they just need a day off," says John Liddell, co-founder of the company. "People are going to lie anyway. How many people go visit their doctors every day when they're not sick because they just need a note?"

The website has been down this morning, but according to the Associated Press, a disclaimer on the site says the notes are "for entertainment purposes only."

Then again, the site also shows pictures of people sunbathing and playing golf after using the fabricated excuses. One testimonial reads: "I've managed to take the nine weeks off using these templates! It couldn't be any easier!"

I can't help but wonder: Is it easier for you to print a fake jury duty excuse, or for a judge to throw you in jail for contempt?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The article on the excuse to skip work couldn’t be more on track! The phrase “The Vision Matters founders said many employees are fed up with working long hours for little pay, then having no flexibility if they needed to tend to a sick relative or attend their children’s school activities” is right on track. My boss comes in at 10:30am, leaves at 12 for lunch, comes back at 2:45 then wonders why the rest of the company is dying to leave at 5pm, all the while he has all this energy. I say to him..Wake up at 5am, hit traffic, get MAYBE a 1hr lunch and let’s see if you don’t want to leave early to go home, deal with kids, eat, go to bed and start over. I especially like the part about the “psychologist” who would be “ethical” and snitch on his co-worker. I think he’s in the wrong profession. Maybe police or some other law enforcement job would be in line. How about..”If employers would treat people the way they need to be treated, people wouldn’t be using these notes,” Liddell said. Rightly So!!