Fired For Jury Duty? Florida Woman Says It Happened to Her

Naples, Florida- A Florida company is in hot water after allegedly firing an employee for serving on a jury.

The ability of the court to pull jurors from the population to serve is a crucial part of the justice system, and former Island Title 5 Star Agency employee Jane Trejo-Beverly says she was fired for jury duty. The case is a bit sticky, because Trejo-Beverly was a new employee, and had been with the company only a month at the time she was allegedly fired for jury duty.

The former wedding planner says that she’d attended the company’s holiday party the night before she was called to report for jury duty, and that she didn’t believe it was likely she’d be selected- in addition to being higher than 400 on a list of 500 potentials, she also listed on the form that she had relatives in law enforcement. But Trejo-Beverly learned later that evening that she had indeed been called.

She texted her office manager both at night and in the morning, and emailed several supervisors to inform them of her obligation. But, Trejo-Beverly says, while she was at the courthouse, she received an upsetting voicemail from her office manager, notifying her that she’d not given enough notice and that she was summarily fired.

In the voicemail, boss Dawn Norgren damningly says:

“I can’t believe you didn’t give enough notice that you were going to be out of the office. Our working relationship isn’t working out. I’m going to have to terminate you.”

Norgren was later summoned to the court that same day to answer charges that she’d fired Trejo-Beverly for jury duty. A lawyer for the terminated employee said:

“This is the heart of the jury system. If jurors are afraid to serve on juries because they’ll lose their jobs, we’re not going to have trials. What this employer did was unspeakable- and hiding behind a probationary period is a pretext. There was no indication she’d be fired. She even went to the holiday party the night before.”

Do you suspect you’ve ever been fired for jury duty?