Jury Summons

[Anonymissus]

My husband is fully transitioned legally (name and gender legally changed on all documents), physically (surgery years ago, rocking a full beard  ), and socially (has not been referred to by old name or pronouns for close to a decade, we've been married for four years and have a child and none of our friends or my family have any idea that he was born female).

Today he got a jury summons for [old female first name] [current male middle name] [last name].

I haven't mentioned it to him yet because it's been so long since he's needed to deal with anything transition-related or acknowledge his old identity that when it does occasionally come up unexpectedly, it kind of sends him into a tailspin, so I don't want to bring it to his attention until I can say "Here is the situation, and here is the solution," and leave no room for panicking in the middle. Which is why I'm asking this and not him.

How do we handle this?

[Sophia Sage]

Maybe start by informing the courthouse that they have the wrong name on their summons?  That there isn't anyone living at your address by that name, but there is someone with a different name, and maybe they should send a new summons with the corrected information?  Not trying to get out of jury duty, just wanting to make sure everything is appropriate, of course...

[JoanneB]

Maybe start by informing the courthouse that they have the wrong name on their summons?  That there isn't anyone living at your address by that name, but there is someone with a different name, and maybe they should send a new summons with the corrected information?  Not trying to get out of jury duty, just wanting to make sure everything is appropriate, of course...

I'd recommend the same. After all.. Legal Systems require things to be Legal.

[Sydney_NYC]

Over 2 years after my legal name change I received a jury summons under my old male name from the same courthouse I did my name change through. In NJ you can do the questionnaire online and there was an option to enter a legal name change. I did and a week later I called the jury office and they had already changed the name. It was not big deal. Today was the day I reported and my correct name was listed and called (there is no gender listed on a jury summons in NJ.) I did get assigned to a trail and it's going to be a doozy. All I can say about it is that its not only is it a criminal case, but also a homicide case.

[Anonymissus]

Right, dodging jury duty definitely isn't the intention here. If it matters, the summons came to his mom's house - we used to live there and moved six months ago. We filed a change of address for his legal name as soon as we moved (no one with the combination of names listed has actually ever existed). His mom still has it at her house, I'll have to check and see if there's an option to correct the name when I get my hands on it tomorrow.

[tgchar21]

I agree that you should try and get the name corrected, but don't use that as an excuse to get out of serving.

[Sydney_NYC]

Right, dodging jury duty definitely isn't the intention here. If it matters, the summons came to his mom's house - we used to live there and moved six months ago. We filed a change of address for his legal name as soon as we moved (no one with the combination of names listed has actually ever existed). His mom still has it at her house, I'll have to check and see if there's an option to correct the name when I get my hands on it tomorrow.

If you are in the same county then usually moving will not dismiss you from Jury Duty. When I received my notice, some friends were saying I should disregard since it's not my legal name anymore, but legally, you are the same person, so you legally should respond appropriately. So you are doing the right thing but not trying to dodge it, but it's certainly dysphoric to receive a legal notice in your dead name.