--- title: German Shepherd Dog Called for Jury Duty In New Jersey description: Unfortunately, she didn't up serving canonical: https://time.com/65072/dog-gets-called-for-jury-duty/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-16T15:45:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:50.740Z og:title: Dog Gets Called For Jury Duty og:description: Unfortunately, she didn't up serving og:url: https://time.com/65072/dog-gets-called-for-jury-duty/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e9c61e89c73ad7f/69868ae8d0b6f239dd303d30/155134444.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: German Shephard og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dog Gets Called For Jury Duty twitter:description: Unfortunately, she didn't up serving twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e9c61e89c73ad7f/69868ae8d0b6f239dd303d30/155134444.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dog Gets Summoned for Jury Duty In New Jersey by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 16, 2014 3:45 PM UTC  German Shephard German ShephardGetty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 16, 2014 3:45 PM UTC It’s always a hassle getting called for jury duty. This is something all of us can agree on. Now, there’s a dog out there who can also agree on this, because she too got called in to fulfill her civic duty. Yes, really. Last week, New Jersey’s Cumberland County sent a jury summons to resident IV Griner. But IV Griner is not a person. She’s a German Shepherd. Her owner, Barrett Griner,[ tells CBS Philly](http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/04/14/nj-familys-dog-summoned-for-jury-duty/) that he figured out the mishap quickly, but it was still pretty funny. His full name is Barrett Griner IV, so a computer likely mistook the roman numerals for his first name before the summons was mailed out. So unfortunately, no, the five-year-old pooch will not be serving on a jury. Although that could actually make for a pretty compelling TV series, right? The German Shepherd who turns out to be a very skilled juror and ends up working her way up through the ranks of the local justice system? If anyone from HBO is reading this, we’ve got plenty more ideas where that came from. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/65072/dog-gets-called-for-jury-duty/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/65072/dog-gets-called-for-jury-duty/"},"headline":"Dog Gets Summoned for Jury Duty In New Jersey","datePublished":"2014-04-16T15:45:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:50.740Z","description":"Unfortunately, she didn't up serving","url":"https://time.com/65072/dog-gets-called-for-jury-duty/","keywords":["Newsfeed","New Jersey","animals","Dogs"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e9c61e89c73ad7f/69868ae8d0b6f239dd303d30/155134444.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e9c61e89c73ad7f/69868ae8d0b6f239dd303d30/155134444.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"German Shephard","caption":"German Shephard","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/65072/dog-gets-called-for-jury-duty/","name":"Dog Gets Summoned for Jury Duty In New Jersey"}}]}] ```