Definitely defer. Then perhaps you can get out of doing it all together because you're in the middle of final exams. What sort of government wants to distract you from learning?

Don't you just fill in something on the back of the form asking for a deferment? I think it's pretty easy - definitely do it.

kelly- no, apparently grand jury duty is different than regular jury duty. i'm pretty sure that i will be able to get out of it for october, however i think that it's mandatory that you return to fulfill the requirement within six months. or something.

Corie - Definately request a deferment. So long as you haven't deferred before, you are almost guaranteed to have it granted - especially if you are able to produce copies of your airplane ticket showing the dates of travel. Contact the jury office, let them know the situation and they will probably give you a 6 month deferment, meaning you WILL be called again, just in a certain period of time - (I'm an attorney in Pennsylvania where it's 6 months. I am not sure if New York jury service has the same time period - they most likely do). Your position as a student will also help you in your deferment request. Make sure to provide them with a copy of your schedule as well and ensure that you get the name of the person you spoke to in the jury office just in case. Good luck!

grand juries in brooklyn are usually impaneled for two weeks or four weeks at a time. when i showed up on my given date, the clerk had zero interest in hearing my story about important work projects i had to do. good luck! definitely call the clerk's office before heading down there on that day.

My fiancee was called for grand jury duty in Manhattan. She was allowed to defer to any period within the next six months. Then again, she's a medical resident, so maybe the rules are different.
With respect to length of grand jury service, in Manhattan it's either two weeks or four weeks, depending on whether you serve half-a-day at a time or a full day. It's very difficult to not get impaneled on a grand jury. As you may know, the purpose of the grand jury is to decide whether a prosecutor has sufficient evidence (I think the standard is "preponderance", making it more likely than not) indicating that a felony has occurred. (Actually, it occurs to me that grand juries sometimes serve as investigatory bodies, issues subpoenas and what-not--in those cases, I think that they tell you ahead of time and may be more agreeable to letting you off the hook).
Generally, it's my understanding that you are allowed to defer once without having to give a good reason.
Also, in Manhattan, at least, you're allowed a certain number of absences during your term of service.

I dont know how it works in the US, but i got called in the UK and deferred it because i had a holiday booked, they were fine with that.
Sat it 6 months later, and on my second to last day got selected for a case - that the judge said was likely to run for over a month! Several of us had to state our case for exclusion infront of the judge, defendants etc. I was able to state that i wasnt being paid whilst on duty, and a month would give me severe financial hardship, so got out of it.

I have never been called for jury duty. I wonder why? I could say that I used to move every year, but I was in my last residence for 4 years and the one before that for 2.

I think the ticket is political beliefs. I for example years ago dressed up in my old punk rock regalia and cited my interest in anarcists politics, and i was dismissed almost imediatelly. Although I no longer endorse such a platform, I will stil cite problems in the justice sysetem as a reason not to serve. I mean my critique of prison in spite of the fact of all those indivuals that probally should be behind bars is predicated on other issues, namely the conditions that gave rise to such criminals: lack of socialized health care that could check for mental illness (I think this is a beggie, how many people who have committed crimes suffered from a physcotic episodes that could perhasp been prevented if there was adequate health care)impoverishment coupled with gang violence that can give rise to a devaluement of human life, also prostitution...etc...etc...etc...
legitimate and significant retorts to why you should not serve... this is not nihilism but an active critique that I think would be helpful to consider. Good luck in your decision.
--tomcat

I got called for grand jury in brooklyn in 2005 .. details here:
http://amylangfield.com/2005/03/sprung-from-jury-duty.html

I was called for grand jury duty in April, and deferred it till July. It's basically one deferral of your choice within that six month period, but only one. Then when you're there, there's a chance that you can get a second deferral, if you have some reason, but it's only a chance, not guaranteed.

I served, because they could guarantee me a ten-day stint, but the next group might have gotten twenty days.

Take a sweater: even in mid-July, when it was 90-plus degrees outside, the juror rooms were refrigerated down to about fifty.