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One of the clerk of court's duties
is the effective management of the parish jury system, a fundamental
component of our everyday lives. The right to trial by jury is one
of our most basic constitutional rights, and it deserves universal
respect.
If you have been called for jury
duty and have questions, click
here to visit the
frequently-asked
questions (FAQ) section of this website. If you remain uncertain,
please feel free to contact us at 364-2919 or 264-2968. You may also download a copy of our juror
handbook by clicking
here. To download this booklet, you
will need Adobe Acrobat Reader:
A
Note about Juror Fraud
Most of us take those summonses for
jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty,
that a new and ominous kind of scam has surfaced. Fall for it and your
identity could be stolen, reports CBS News.
In this con, someone calls
pretending to be a court official who threateningly says a warrant has
been issued for your arrest because you didn't show up for jury duty.
The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you
never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your
Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the
information and cancel the arrest warrant. Sometimes they even ask for
credit card numbers. Give out any of this information and bingo! Your
identity just got stolen. The scam has been reported so far in 11
states, including Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado. This (scam) is
particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to
try and bully people into giving information by pretending they're with
the court system.
The FBI and the federal court
system have issued nationwide alerts on their websites, warning
consumers about the fraud. The Clerk of Court's Office will
NEVER ask for personal information over the telephone. Do NOT give
out personal information over the telephone. Check it out here:
http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp
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