Serving on a jury can be a gratifying experience, yet so many people find ways to get out of it.

What happens when a person doesn’t show up for jury duty, whether on purpose or by accident? In truth, the consequences vary depending on the judge.

Anthony Talarico, the chief assistant prosecutor for the Major Crimes Unit at the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, said failure to respond to a jury questionnaire or summons is “in the discretion of the court.”

Talarico said without a reasonable excuse, a person who fails to show up is liable for a $500 fine or could be punished for contempt of court, a fourth-degree indictable offense. Contempt of court could land someone in state prison for up to 18 months.

According to the assistant prosecutor, a judge could direct the sheriff to send the person a written notice to respond to the questionnaire and let them know a fine has been imposed on them and they have 30 days to respond to the notice. If they fail to respond, the assignment judge could have the sheriff recover the $500 from the person.

“We’re not going through jury questionnaires and seeing who hasn’t responded and looking to prosecute them,” Talarico said. “Obviously that’s ridiculous.”

Talarico said the purpose of the statutes is to empower the court to fine people or threaten to fine people who don’t respond, and it is just looking for people to respond to the questionnaires. It is unlikely a judge would place a person in jail for failing to show up for jury duty. The assistant prosecutor said the court doesn’t want people throwing the notices away and when someone doesn’t fill it out, the person is required to show up in person.

“And what this is really saying is: ‘Hey, we really want you to respond to this. If you don’t respond to the questionnaire, you’re definitely going to have to come in and explain why,” Talarico said.

He said if a reasonable excuse is given, a person can be excused from jury duty.

Talarico said jury duty is an important constitutional right and that a small number of people are ever called to serve. He said a majority of people are excused for a cause or excused because there is no trial going on.

He said the last published case he could find of someone being fined and having assets seized was in 1838 in Mercer County and the person did get his $1 fine back. However, people should still respond to jury duty summons as the 1838 case is just the last published case, and you could still be fined.

“The Founding Fathers did put it up there with the same category as representative government as how important trial by jury is,” Talarico said. “John Adams said it was the hearts and lungs of liberty, trial by jury, just like representative government.”

Everyone has a constitutional right to a jury trial under federal and state constitutions and Talarico said the government doesn’t ask much of its citizens. He said they aren’t required to vote, aren’t required to serve in the military and are only asked to pay taxes and serve on a jury.

“It is baked into the fabric of who we are as Americans,” Talarico said, adding it is a “cornerstone” of people’s rights.

Talarico said many people who end up serving on a jury become invested in the trial, and even if it ends up being longer than anticipated, they rarely object.

Defense attorney Brian Neary said serving on a jury should be as cherished as the right to vote.

“I think there’s an obligation of education,” Neary said. “The system of justice has to educate people of its importance. School has to educate people of its importance.”

In Bergen County, the courts are backed up because of the pandemic, and Talarico said they didn’t try cases for over two years. He said they are just starting to get through the backlog.

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Neary said he argued about virtual jury selection before the state Supreme Court, noting there was an issue about who would have connectivity and the potential to exclude people who could not work the technology or couldn’t afford to have a device that could connect them.

“It became a big brouhaha about that where now, they’re required to keep statistics about who calls up and says ‘I can’t come because I’ve got to go to Disneyland or I can’t come because I’ve got to go to work,’ ” Neary said.

Neary added there is a “deeper” side to jury selection because a jury of peers is a cross-section of the community. He said it is a “tremendous amount of responsibility” to be on a jury.

“Everybody who serves on a jury thinks that it is worthwhile and important experience,” Neary said. “They don’t want to do it but after they finished, not only are they glad they did it, but understand how important and what a meaningful experience it is to a person.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: What happens if you miss jury duty? We asked experts