Jury service expenses are ridiculous

I did jury duty. I claimed on my business insurance and that took longer than the court case.

She was told she was “ineligible for jury duty” and she was dismissed, after she as told the rest of her family (ie; the rest of us as she still lives at home) would also be struck, as there can be biases formed.

I have a number of close friends in the police, and used to train with serving police quite regularly.

When I was called for Jury duty they pretty much all said the same thing: "If they're in court, it means they did it".

True or not, I can see why they might be reluctant to have police/close family on a jury for bias reasons 😅

If there is a connection to the case - eg if the incident happened in a serving officer or family’s force area - then likely would be barred from that case but I don’t believe it’s a blanket ban. I think it would be good to have that ban in place for exactly the reason you say though.

Well, it happened to my sister, who has been out of the service for about 2 years: she was given jury duty, went to the court told them about her service history and that we had relatives still serving.
She was told she was “ineligible for jury duty” and she was dismissed, after she as told the rest of her family (ie; the rest of us as she still lives at home) would also be struck, as there can be biases formed. So I figured that must be the reason.

I managed to defer when I was a student as 3 weeks before my final exams. My Auntie always said she wanted to do it. Then she got called and had to do a trial that lasted for 3 weeks. She was not allowed to discuss it with anyone and it was a murder trial but in the end it turned into manslaughter. She hated it and said never again.

For many years I was employed in roles where I would have recieved mynormal pay.I would love to have served but was never called. A year after I retired from full time work and became self employed I got called. I got a medical excusement by saying I had agorophobia. I was never called again and am now past the age.

DH was on a jury for a case that lasted over a year. It wasn’t every day but I think in total it was around 80 days actually in court, often with long breaks in between. I believe he got an enhanced daily allowance due to length of service but don’t think it was more than £100. Crippled us financially. His employer was not happy about it at all.

Theres an ITV drama in here somewhere.

Exact same thing happened to me and I was broke by the end of the trial.

Who told you this? Law enforcement are not automatically exempt and neither are their families.

I would defer, I think the earliest call back is a year. Hopefully it will fall in term time whereby I’m assuming you receive the 30 hours free childcare from the government - full entitlement if both parents are working.

Like others who’ve commented, I find this fascinating as I’ve never been called (nearly 50) and nor have any of my family or close friends. And yet other people have been called multiple times. I was starting to wonder if we’re on a black list 😀

I used to be on a list of people who weren't eligible, the rules have changed I wonder if I'm eligible again?

No idea. I know that if I’m ever called, I simply have to tell them that I have been and have serving family members and I will not be allowed to carry on.

I got out of it. Your pay is at your employer discretion. Im in a school. Cant be down wages.. I said I mind my elderly parent/check in on them. Such hassle if you not paid aswell

Thanks for replying. I don’t think I do and like others would struggle with the pay they provide.

not been called yet so will cross that bridge if it arises. But no pay and a huge impact on the business.

What is this is this never heard of it 😳

A lot of employees get full pay if called to do jury service and I wrongly assumed this was the case for all. Certainly at every company I’ve worked for it has been full pay.

Hmm, confused, most courts have multiple cases in different court rooms, and they’re all stopping or starting at different times. In our case a couple of initially selected people opted out after private discussion with court clerk , I assume becuase of link to sexual offence. But they weren’t dismissed form jury service. They were in court next couple of days and then served on jury on different case.

not sure why you imply that there was only one case in the entire court for two weeks! Was it a tiny court?

In fairness, our jury lounge was actually ok. There wasnt any sound on tv, seats were ok, pretty big with sectioned off areas, so sound of people talking was fine. Overall it was pretty calm.

I think if you were only coming in on first day and then continually dismissed each day early you’d think it was a bit noisy. But after the morning chaos of selections, it settled down. Our jury tended to sit together for whole 3 weeks we were there, we played a lot of games togther, crosswords every day…mainly becuase we had so much wasted time not in court but kicking our heels in lounge.

i was pissed that you couldn’t take a sewing or knitting needle in - that might have helped! There was always a lot of knitting needle confiscated at security as people didn’t read blurb or thought they could get away with it. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤣

i think they must have refurbished the lounge fairly recently as it was in good nick.

but, take your point in a smaller less well maintained court it would be hospital like!

either way , I can complelty agree you really really don’t want to spend 2 or more weeks sitting in jury lounge being mostly bored witless, or resenting that you can’t earn any money, or seething at sheer stupid time wasting by courts, when you’ve only actually been in court for 3 hours that day and they’re telling you case will extend into possibly 4 weeks due to “slow progress”

Making a difference should not leave people at risk of being unable to pay their rent.

Im being evicted because i did jury service would make a great headline on the front of a paper though

Nobody can!
Full days 'compensation' isn't even 2 hours of pay... my employer paid my wages when I did it... 2 weeks only though- thank fuck it didnt go over that...

When my ex boss asked me to help her whilst doing jury service, she had to fill in a form and put my daily rate ( school pick ups and drop offs) they also paid her train fare.But they wouldn't pay her car park money.( hence getting the train)

Even serving police officers are eligible for Jury service