What Happens If You Don’t Show For Jury Duty In Texas?

We've pretty much all received one of these little postcards in the mail. No, not one of those pretty beach scene ones from someone on vacation, I'm talking about one that comes from Potter or Randall County.

It's white, has a bunch of words and numbers on it, and it's going to potentially miss work or other things for at least a day, maybe more. Yeah, I'm talkin about a jury summons.

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Now I've gotten several of them over the course of my lifetime. Luckily, I've never actually been selected or even have to show up to see if I'm selected. Now that I say that, I'm sure the next one I receive will be some two week long trial I have to serve on.

Here's the thing about jury summons cards though. They aren't sent certified mail or anything like that. it just shows up with your regular mail. I've heard people say that because of that, they can't hold you accountable if you just don't show for it.

I can see what they're saying, it's pretty easy to say it didn't come and just full on ignore it. I mean, if you don't respond to it, how would they know? Well, don't get wrapped up in what others tell you when it comes to that.

There are consequences if you decide not to show up for jury duty. More often than not, you'll call the number or go online to find out you don't even need to show up, but that one time where you need to be there, you'll decide to ignore it.

Many will tell you there are no consequences for not showing and that the courts won't even do anything about it. Sure, that might be true to a certain extent, but there ARE penalties that can be levied on you if you don't show.

According to txcourts.gov you can be fined anywhere between $100-1000 for Failure to Answer the Summons. So yeah, that goes on your record and takes a chunk of money out of your bank account.

So when that card comes, don't ignore it, just do what it tells you to do. Chances are you'll be just fine and not even have to go in.