To get off jury service

[speakout]

Just that the 8th time I have been called in 14 years. Why me!! I have posted papers to escape.

I think people sometimes seriously overestimate the amount of help you can get from carers.

My elderly parents need carers. My father is too weak to stand up without help, to get out of bed without help, to wash and dress without help. The carers provided to him have ten minutes, and most of them refuse to do anything beyond make a cup of tea. They'll stand by his bed and repeatedly bark at him to get up but they won't actually help him. Having a seriously disabled person have maybe ten minutes help three times a day is not even close to what it's like to provide constant care and company.

I think you absolutely have the right to ask to be excused, no matter how many times you have been asked before. Your mother cannot manage without you and it would cost a lot to get carers to cover what you do for her. I know there are forms to fill in etc but i would just call and actually speak to someone and explain your circumstances.

You are quite reasonable in your situation in not doing it. I'm a carer for my son and I couldn't either as appropriate professional childcare doesn't exist.

Thanks spikey.

My mother does need a lot of support. Although mobile she would simply not eat or drink unless someone puts stuff physically in front of her. When she lived alone she would go for a couple of days without fluid. She never feels thirst.

Write on their forms you would need x amount of money to pay for a full time carer for your mum whilst you did the service. I am a sahm and was called up for Easter holidays, I would have needed a lot of money to pay for child care as I have no one who would have 3 kids on a whim and potentially for all 2 weeks of the hols. I said it was either thst or i bring my chikdren with me......Given that my court won't even reimburse parking costs they excused me from the sevice and have told me I won't get called again. Just put it down to them in monetary terms, if they want you they will have to pay, which they wont. Bet you get the same response as me.

You can claim back any costs you incur in providing care for your mother. I was reimbursed for childcare when I served recently.

Only up to a certain amount. They won't cover all day adult social care.

I think reimbursement is area dependent. Mine won't even cover parking costs and will only reimburse wages lost up tok £140 a day. Won't reimburse any other costs at all (That's according to the info they sent me with their pink letter).

Apologies for the typos, aforementioned children distracting me

OK just checked. They will pay up to £6 an hour for care.

Am I likely to find a temporary carer for that money?

I do think you should ask to be excused given your situation. But, as it's not a permanent situation, it's likely they will call you again at some point.

According to the gov website the maximum care cost per day for first 10 days is £65 which wouldn't cover a full day. It would cover 2 hours in our case.

For anyone facing this dilemma, it's worth knowing that names for jury service are selected from the electoral roll....

IYKWIM

Hi op, I recently got excused as I had no childcare. I thought I'd try it just to see and they granted it. So hopefully they will in your situation.

Fil carer works directly for £10 an hour.It would be £15 through an agency.

You can be excused if you cannot find temporary childcare, I couldn't the first time I was called as a sahm my only childcare arrangement was DH taking care of ds when I worked weekends. No formal childcarer would take ds just for 2 weeks.

Also for people saying why would you want to be excused? I sat as juror on a sexual assault case and it was harrowing, I'd never want to sit on a jury again.

You won't get care for £6 ph as it's under the NMW, unless a very young carer, and wouldn't account for travel costs.

All you can do is fill in the forms and see what happens. Obviously in your case, you have good reason not to be able to do jury service, but it was as easy as ringing up with a reason that isn't checked, maybe too many people are making excuses, without proof, and they need more people to serve.

There's supposed to be a 2year gap between call ups.

In my area they didn’t reimburse parking either and there was a cap on loss of earnings but I don’t remember if there was a max limit to claims for care. Luckily I was able to find a child minder who would take DD on a temporary basis and only charged £4.50 an hour. If the maximum is about £6 there’s no way you would be able to find 1:1 professional adult care at that rate. Would you be able to pay someone you know to step in and look after your dm? I believe you are allowed to make informal arrangements as long as you get receipts. There should be someone you can call and speak to about it.

There's supposed to be a 2year gap between call ups

Sweet pea - the op hasn't actually done any jury service yet, just deferred.

sayhellotothelittlefell yes thanks I have looked into that too- the Courts will pay £1 an hour for a non registered carer.

Parking costs near the court is £3.80 an hour.

I would take public transport if forced to attend.

I think the only way around it is to have my OH take annual leave- but he has to book it several months in advance and I have no idea how long a case would run for.

Your jury service will be for two weeks, unless they warn you otherwise.

When I did it a few years back, a few days before they sent out letters warning that a trial that was expected to last about 8 weeks would start during the period I was to serve and if you couldn't serve for 8 weeks, you had to get your excuses ready.

Some people had prebooked holiday, I got a letter from my department head saying that I couldn't be absent from work for that period of time at such short notice, which the judge grudgingly accepted, but one man said that he was the main carer for his elderly mother, and the judge was absolutely fine with this.