Student DS summoned for jury service

[FestiveFug]

Just that really.

He's very unimpressed as it's right in the middle of a semester, so he'll be missing work.

It's also in his home town which I don't understand as he's been on the electoral register in his uni town, 3 hours away, for the past year.

I've never done, but think it would be a good life experience. Should he just suck it up?

Yup

www.kent.ac.uk/guides/jury-summons-guidance-for-students#:~:text=Everyone%20on%20the%20electoral%20register,up%20for%20your%20jury%20service.

Just found this guidance (pretty generic but his uni might have one).

No no no!! It’ll have a huge impact on his studies. He could be absent for weeks. Even with exemptions etc and extra support from uni that’s probably available how ever is he supposed to catch up on that missed learning?
Surely this is a case to defer. I would love to do jury service but I definitely would not have coped with weeks off uni to do it!

If it is during assessment deadlines or he would miss significant teaching he can apply to defer it until later in the year. Most unis will provide a letter if needs be.

I got summoned for jury duty when I was a student in my home town. I couldn’t take the time off so I asked to be exempted til the summer holidays and they pushed it back. Jury duty is a good life experience but you miss a lot of study in two weeks and I imagine it would be hard to catch up on.

Yeah he needs to ask the uni to support him in deferring it.

"Yup"

🙄 because?

No, in the middle of term he shouldn't. He will be able to have it deferred

Defer it definitely, if it will have a negative impact on his course.

I had the reverse - summonsed at my uni address during the summer holiday when I was 150 miles away at my parents’ house. I explained and asked to defer, which they did and then I didn’t receive another summons (which I was quite disappointed about as I did want to do it)!

As previous posters have said, get him to fill in the deferral request. Teachers do this all the time, (to avoid impacting students), and it’s always accepted. I see no reason why students wouldn’t be afforded the same consideration.

Do make it clear to your son, however, that he must be available for the dates he lists - he can’t book holidays, or anything like that, during dates he has already provided.

Re: Amount of time on a jury - my sister is actually doing jury service atm and I have known several others who have done it. The usual procedure is that the court officer asks who isn’t/is available for a potentially longer trial. That way, people with important commitments don’t get put on long trials.

It’s not foolproof- my sister said she could only do two weeks and it’s gone into a third, but it will finish in a day or two and the judge wrote them all letters for work, (which she found hilarious- like being back at school!)

By contrast, a friend said she wasn’t bothered how long a trial took and she ended up on a two month one!

I am sure your son can get this sorted out, but he needs to act now.

Good luck.