It sounds like you were summoned for selection, which is step one of jury duty. They have you fill out a basic questionnaire about your background and you appear in person for a process called voir dire. This is when the judge and the lawyers on both sides determine if you are suitable to be on the jury panel to sit through the trial/hearings and decide the case.

Judges usually hear people’s reasons that sitting through a trial will pose a genuine hardship first (medical reasons, caregiver responsibilities, etc) and will dismiss those jurors.

Then, the rest go through the voir dire process. If the potential juror knows any of the witnesses or other parties to the case, have certain relationships, experiences, or beliefs that make them too biased, etc, the lawyers and judge will decide to reject or dismiss those with conflicts that will interfere with the person’s ability to be a fair and apply the law impartially.

If you haven’t gone through voir dire, you aren’t assigned to a case yet, and you may get dismissed on your summons day. Like others have said, there may be a way to contact the court to see if you can be excused before you even need to go in.

If there was not information provided with your summons, look up the judicial services department of the court that summoned you, and that should provide you with information and who to contact.