Jury duty

[j0j080]

I'm 31 weeks pregnant with our first child, due 30th November. My husband has been called for jury duty, starting 2nd November. Would he be unreasonable to ask to get out of it, and is this likely to be granted?

I start maternity leave from a stressful, long commute, shiftwork job on 30th October, and was looking forward to getting odd jobs around house sorted, last minute organisation etc, and spending some last minute quality time with himself while it is just the two of us. Really not relishing the idea of him being tied up with jury duty instead!

If the trial goes on for a few weeks, I may very well go into labour while he is jury duty-ing. If he has to leave during the trial surely being one juror down would prejudice the trial?

However, if he does successfully get a deferment will this make it more likely that he will get called again soon? I will be going back to work full time when the baby is 6 months old or so and he will be the stary at home parent. As such, we will have no other childcare option if he gets called again when I am back to work. Is this a good enough reason to get out of jury duty until the kid is school aged?

I must clarify, he has no problem actually doing jury duty, we just can't see logistically how it can be done!

Any anecdotes, ideas or advice?

I always used to say I was breastfeeding, not much help to your dh lol

I've recently deferred jury duty. I had to give dates I would be able to do it during the next year, and have received a letter that I am to attend on the new date at 9.15 am to start my jury service.

Get him to call them, I imagine he can defer it.

Oh and the reason I gave was lack of childcare, having a baby and another child with additional needs. They were fine about it.

That's a valid reason, he should be able to defer. But it will be just that, , chances are he will be called up again. If you have a good reason then they are usually happy to help you out, the court officials aren't total ogres.

Might be better getting it out of the way!

I wonder can he defer it until 2020 when sprog will be in school (only a little bit joking!). Deferment just pushes the problem down the line a little, if they call him again next summer he will be even less able to do it!

If you defer jury duty ( which you can with the right reason - and your reason for DH is pretty good reason) you cannot defer again.

So if he gets called again, he will have to do those dates.

Harsh, but if everyone had a reason for jury duty not suiting them, no one would ever do it.

You being so close to your due date is absolutely a good enough reason - but anything after that, all you can do is cross your fingers that it takes a while to come through!

I suppose I just can't imagine a stay at home mum with below school aged children being compelled to do it, and this is basically the same except he will be a dad. Would a stay at home mum be compelled to do it? How would you get paid childcare organised at such short notice, and for an uncertain amount of time?

Yes, everyone including SAHMs are compelled to do it. You can ask to be deferred (and if you have very small breastfed babies or are pregnant and close to due date, they'll say yes) but there are limits to how often and how long you can be deferred for. You'd be expected to do it with bigger infants (use an agency if you cannot make other childcare arrangements).

So it might be better to get it over with.

I'd recommend that he does it now, but points out your due date and requests he is not allocated any trials that are expected to be lengthy.

Well he can defer it and tell them he will be available within the first 6 months after baby is born because you will be at home.

You can defer but only once. And he will be called again in the next 12 months.

Being the sole carer for a young child is a reason that I have heard for people saying they can't do jury service at all, and that was accepted. I deferred once and got called again 4 months later. I'm a SAHP to 4 children (at the time aged 1,3,5 and 7) I served for two weeks because I feel strongly that you should take your turn... I managed by finding a childminder for the short time required, and got all my costs back from the court.

I would suggest your husband serves in November, if a trial is going to go over two weeks, each juror is asked if that will be a problem and if you have a good enough reason the judge will excuse you from sitting on that trial. I would imagine your due date would be good enough as when I was serving, people who had holidays booked or were self-employed didn't have to go over their two weeks.

SurlyCue I am feeling very stupid as we hadn't even considered that option, obvious solution! So he could let them know he can't do the date he had been given, but would be available for a defined period later on.

I would ask for it to be deferred until 6 weeks after your due date but no later than when you go back to work.

SurlyCue I am feeling very stupid as we hadn't even considered that option, obvious solution! So he could let them know he can't do the date he had been given, but would be available for a defined period later on.

Yep, seems most practical solution. You know for sure you will be there within the first six months so schedule his jury duty for then and its done and out of the way.

Thanks all, I feel a lot less stressed about it now. He is going to call on Monday and ask them what his options are, hopefully he can ask to only be called between 6 weeks and 6 months after the baby arrives, fingers crossed!

I deferred a few years back and gave very specific dates I was available. They picked the first one. No problem. It was interesting.

He could ask if he is down for a short case - I know people who've been called for longer cases and they were given an idea of the timescales when they were called, so they could plan etc. If he gets an afternoon/2 day case it might be better to just do it and then he is off the list for a while. I've been lined up for jury service twice - the first time I called as instructed the night before and the case had been dropped, the second time I called several times and was put off till the next day, had to eventually turn up on the Friday morning and sat around till lunchtime when we were told the defendant had plead guilty and we weren't needed.

Re childcare it is tricky - my husband and I are both part-time and have no booked childcare, and although children are at school now the after school club is full. When he was called he explained all that to the court over the phone, but still had to turn up on the day, I think the idea was that if enough other people turned up he would be excused (which was what happened).

I think you can decline to be available for longer cases. We were asked on the first day when I did mine. 2 weeks, very dull.

I did jury service last year. On our first day we gad to complete a form about whether we could serve for more than the allocated 2 weeks, if we had any holidays booked ir reasons we couldn't do a longer case.

We were not listed to specific cases but were pooled and picked when new cases started.

I was called for jury duty earlier this year and deferred it to the school holidays because I work my hours around dropping and picking up my DS and have no other childcare. They were fine as long as gave dates I could do within the next 12 months.