Jury service and loss of income

[biggerthanadonkey]

I'm ready to cry my dp has been selected for jury service the month of December. It already messes up lots of Christmas plans we have with family/ friends my dp had annual leave left to use for this which he'll lose and to top it off I've just read that you don't get paid for Jury service. My DP is the main ( by a long shot ) earner in our home. What the hell do we do 😫

I’ve refused twice - nothing happened. The first time I explained I can’t as I have autism and they kept saying I could and I refuse dos they grated the deferral the second time they were really difficult and I just didn’t turn up . I wasn’t fined

*granted

You can’t have it both ways and without people doing jury service there is no fair system.

You can't expect a fair system if a section of society are financially unable to participate, no I would not expect someone to be out of pocket to sit on a jury whether that's for me or anyone else, the only fair way to ensure a wide demographic of people is to ensure people do not experience a financial loss otherwise you will have a disproportionate number of people from lower income backgrounds not represented, because they will find a way to avoid it, as I say, I would.

Has he asked his employer OP? A few people have asked the same question.

My husband is self employed. So not only would it put us in serious financial difficulty, he would have lost all his customers. He deferred for a year then emailed them with his issues. He was let off. You can't be expected to do jury service and end up losing your lively good.

The thing is, this is all a public service, so the only way to ensure nobody is ever out of pocket for it would be to possibly increase taxes so that the government could pay everyone their usual day rate- and I think people would be complaining just the same here if taxes were being increased. In addition, from a “fairness” perspective, how fair is that? That you could have 2 people doing the same jury service at the same time and one claims £62 a day as that is their typical day rate, while the other claims £270 as that is their typical day rate? Then you’d have people kicking off that it’s not fair that all are not paid the same for doing the same role during that time!

For the first 10 days of jury service you can claim £65 per day, if you are required for more than 10 days then you can claim £129 per day.

Again, I feel quite sure that if it was a member of your family who had been wronged and you, as a family, were waiting for their murderer/attacker/burglar/drunk driven etc to be brought to justice, you would be kicking off just the same if you were having to wait weeks and weeks because everybody is refusing to do jury service. Similarly if you were in a cell awaiting trial, especially if you are innocent, you would be extremely unhappy about having to wait an extra few weeks because of a lack of jurors.

There is no magic answer for this, but it’s an extremely important role. Many (I think most) employers do now pay you the top up if you have to do jury service and OP hasn’t clarified if her partner has checked this, so it may be a non issue

How are you so stretched financially if you both work FT and you work a second job on top??

What is the relationship with his boss like?

My employer didn’t allow me to do it because they wouldn’t give me the time off.
This was during covid when lots of staff were off poorly and she refused it so I had to defer it (they then dropped me from the list).

I’d ask to defer it by either asking his boss to say he can’t do it but there needs to be a reason or for personal reasons but again he needs to give a reason.

If he’s already got annual leave booked, then he doesn’t loose any money? Annoying for your plans of course but the financial side is already covered… he doesn’t have to cancel the annual leave with work.

My husband deferred once as he was running his own business. He was never called again.

Having a Jury is a key part of the UK justice system - it’s just how it is.
It’s annoying, but I think disgusting is a stretch.

Heads up, if you think you know the person on trial? Or you have done a course covering how to influence a jury then they don't want you 😂

Not if you're in northern Ireland, it's 4 weeks here and longer if selected for a trial

In the U.K. the barristers don't get a say over who is on the jury. Just if anyone recognises people involved they excluded due to potential bias.

Has he definitely been called for the whole month?
Dp and I were only called for one week.

If your partner is employed there are 3 options. 1. Employer pays as usual. 2. Partner claims from court and company top up to normal salary 3. Company don't pay and you only get the set amount - just under £33 for 4 hrs or less, just under £65 for over 4 hours. After 10 days those sums increase slightly.

If self employed there is a separate form to complete, some of the jurers with me were self employed talked about submitting tax return info or other documents.

What part of ‘he can defer it’ did you not get. So many people have mentioned it.

I’ve just been called up for Jury Service to commence on the 2nd of January. However, I’m a 3rd year student nurse, therefore, I explained to them that I was unable to commence jury service until the end of my degree in July due to NMC legal requirements for placement and theory hours, which would delay my graduation and consequently exacerbate the grave staff shortages in the NHS. I had to give them 3 other dates on which I’m available to serve next year. They subsequently emailed me today to accept my deferral and have chosen one of the alternative dates I gave them in August for me to commence Jury Duty.

When I was called up I tried to get a deferral but was refused. I was a secondary teacher and they called me in April just before students GCSE and A level exams. I had to do 2 weeks but finished 1 day early. I got paid a set amount each day and I had to travel 25 miles and used public transport and got reimbursed. The money you get paid had to pay for food too. My employer didn't pay me half. Schools don't have spare cash. I lost out financially and my students missed out but it is important we have juries so I had to do it.

Can he not use remaining paid leave to cover some of it?

You can apply to defer it.

But sometimes you have to do your civic duty, and one of these is Jury Duty. I gave had to do it 3 times, and list income each time. Suck it up.

1. He could apply to defer
2. He could check with his employer to see if they actually cover jury service
3. He could book holiday for the time he's serving and therefore kill two birds with one stone.

Calm down OP.

It's a horrible system and even if people have a rainy day fund, that's generally intended to cover emergency household expenses rather than doing a public duty. Paid, professional jurors would be a much better option and I'm sure they would be paid more than £65 a day. Is that even enough to cover the loss of a minimum wage?

Anyway, you've had lots of advice about deferring and employers paying. My employer paid my wages when I was cited a few months ago.

A few friends of mine have ignored their citation without any repercussions. It's not sent recorded delivery so they can't tell if it was received.

The £65 a day is just a nominal amount. Most employers pay as normal and reclaim from govt. If you are self employed you submit a letter from your accountant which could say you earn 1000 a day and that's what you get. I unfortunately had only started my business in April and was called in July so I had no accounts to back me up so I couldn't claim. My OH did it in August and was paid as normal by his employer. My PAYE boss has just done it after being called for the sixth time in Scotland which is a different system to England.

I think almost any sensible reason you can defer once, but not again. So pick your alternative dates well!

DH was self employed too and there was no one else who could take over, so he was excused.