Rick Acker

PSA: I just received a phone call from someone purporting to be from the County Sheriff's office claiming to have a warrant for my failure to appear for federal jury service, and claiming to have my signature on a jury summons certified mail from April. I said I'd be happy to go down to federal court to take care of this tomorrow, to which they said it had to happen today. Being an attorney I internally called BS: Why would the local sheriff be enforcing a federal court order? How could I forget certified mail? Why would it have to happen at 5:59pm in the evening? I told him I guessed he was going to have to send a sheriff down to arrest me then. At which point he hung up. I was nevertheless a *bit* nervous about this, so I called the sheriff's office. They confirmed this was a scam going around. If I hadn't been a lawyer, I honestly might have fallen for it: The caller was pretty persistent and insistent. So don't fall for it. The sheriff's office isn't likely to enforce federal jury service, they aren't going to ask you to pay over the phone to get out of a service, and they DEFINITELY aren't going to give you a warning about serving a warrant for your arrest.