Determined mom fights for change

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@thecitizennews.com

It was more than an inconvenience for Barbara Anderson to serve jury duty, but she did it anyway.

The Fayetteville mom keeps her children, 4-year-old Max and 2-year-old Eli, at home. So when she was summoned to jury duty last year, she had difficulty finding someone to take care of the kids.

The trial Anderson was chosen for lasted six days.

Unfortunately, Georgia law at the time didn’t give judges any leeway to excuse stay-at-home moms from jury duty. Some jurors could defer their service to another date, but the juror eventually had to serve.

Now, though, a new state law has been enacted to allow stay-at-home care givers to be exempted from jury duty in certain situations. And a letter from Anderson about her experience played a role in getting the law changed.

After the trial Anderson served on had ended, Anderson wrote Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards to let him know the hardship that jury duty service caused her family. Anderson said her husband, Keenan, helped encourage her to write about the experience, but she didn’t expect much to come of the letter.

Edwards forwarded Anderson’s letter to several key state lawmakers, which helped play a role in changing the jury duty law.

“I really have to give a lot of the credit to Judge Edwards,”

Anderson said. “He sent the letter to where it needed to be.”

In her letter, Anderson indicated that the jury duty service created such a hardship that she considered withdrawing her voter registration, which she believed was the impetus for getting her on the jury duty list anyway.

Anderson received positive responses from all lawmakers who wrote her back except Kathy Cox, who opposed changing the jury duty law.

Under the new law, jurors asking for excuses because they are care givers of children 4 or younger must swear out affidavits regarding their situations. The final decision on whether to excuse the juror or simply defer that juror’s service is up to the judge, however.

The lesson here is that it’s not too difficult to get things changed by the system, Anderson said.

“You can write one letter and make a difference,” she said. “That should make us all feel pretty engaged to the process.”

If Anderson chose to work and put Max and Eli in day care, she wouldn’t have had much trouble making child care arrangements, Anderson admits. But she still doesn’t regret making the decision to stay at home with Max and Eli.

“If you’re not going to raise your children, why have them?”

Anderson said. “If they’re at day care nine hours a day, five days a week, someone else is raising them.”

As for the law finally changing, Anderson said even if she is never called for jury duty again, it will help other stay-at-home moms. And stay-at-home dads, too.

“I say let’s hear it for family values,” Anderson said.