| How to entertain yourself this weekend. |
There’s serving your civic duty, and then there’s serving your civic duty, you know? —Eileen Cartter, style editor |
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Some Advice for the Summoned? ‘The Goal Isn’t to Impress Anyone’ |
The 1995 movie Jury Duty is not an accurate representation of the American judicial system, but it’s worth a watch for two important reasons. Firstly, it’s a great reminder that when Pauly Shore was on, he was on, and second, it provides a surprisingly good example of what to wear for jury duty. Without giving away too much of the plot, Shore plays an unemployed lout who gets called to jury duty, and, in an effort to prolong his $5-per-day stipend and free hotel room, attempts to drag out the trial as long as possible, with predictably hilarious results. Shore doesn’t make a great juror, but his decision to wear a dress shirt, tie, and suit jacket with his ’90s mall jeans is surprisingly on-point. And if Pauly Shore can get it right, so can you.
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That said, confusion about the jury-duty dress code is entirely reasonable given the vague and inconsistent sartorial guidelines provided by individual American courts. (Surely, other wildly fictionalized representations of jury duty in popular media, such as Amazon’s pseudo-reality series Jury Duty or Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 haven’t helped matters either.) Some courts are super specific (the US District Court of New Mexico, for example, requires men to wear a shirt with a collar and long pants), while others leave room for interpretation (“Dress comfortably…. But don’t get too informal,” advises the comparatively chill Washington State judiciary) or simply provide no advice at all. And then there are the slight differences between federal and local courts, city and rural courts, and the whims of the presiding judge. To get to the bottom of it, we reached out to a bunch of legal professionals across the country about how to dress for jury duty. Here’s what they said.
Respectability is a spectrum
Trials by jury are one of the pillars of American democracy, and as a potential juror, most courthouses require that jurors’ presentations reflect the solemnity of the occasion. “On paper, most courts across the country say the same thing: ‘Dress respectfully.’ That’s intentionally vague, and it gives courts flexibility, [but] in practice, there’s a real spectrum,” says Shelby Hart, a family-law attorney at Coker, Robb and Cannon in North Texas. “Federal courts and larger urban counties tend to expect business casual at a minimum, [while] smaller counties or rural jurisdictions can be more relaxed, but even there, ‘respectful’ still means looking like you took it seriously.”
What the judge says, goes
Regardless of what a local courthouse’s website says, the presiding judge will decide whether your outfit is appropriate. “Judges have broad discretion regarding courtroom attire. They set the tone for decorum in their courtroom and can determine what is and isn’t acceptable on a case-by-case basis,” says Andrew L. Hope, the founding attorney of Hope Law in Des Moines, Iowa. “While most judges follow published guidelines, they ultimately have the authority to enforce dress codes as they see fit, including denying entry or instructing a juror to change.”
More sartorial guidance this way. |
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