to refuse to do Jury Service?

[Messyisthenewtidy]

I've just received a summons and I'm freaking out. My employer pays up to 2 weeks but beyond that the expenses that you can claim are a pittance and I'll be in serious financial difficulties.

I'm a single mum so obviously the only earner. Can I reasonably refuse? Will they let me? What happens if it goes on for ages and I lose my job?

Please advise me! Has anyone managed to get out of it on the grounds of being the only wage earner?

Most of the other jurors were either thickos or maniacs: the people who either have fuck all else to do or fancied themselves as stars of some John Grisham type film; quite a lot didn't have a clue about how the law works.

This is exactly why it's important to do jury service if you possibly can - we need juries to be representative of the public, including working people, parents etc etc.

Op it sounds like you can do the two weeks, and as pps say they do check who is able to complete extended service before putting you on a long trial, so you should be fine.

I was quite dreading doing jury service years ago,like what happens,and what you have to do etc, as I am a bit anxious about these things.. But now I am an oldie, and past doing jury stuff.. But now I sometimes think,that it would have been an interesting experience to be involved in.

I got deferred only because i was breastfeeding a newborn (she was 3 months at the time i would have had to do it).
It will most likely only last 2 weeks so you should be fine.ll

Sage, I think you would have good reason to be exempted from service if you could get a letter from your GP or even better a consultant psychiatrist explaining your mental health problems. I have a chronic pain condition (rheumatoid arthritis and connective tissue disease) and could not sit for hours without being in severe pain and unable to concentrate or weigh up the important issues. My consultant rheumatologist sent a letter describing the impact of my condition on me (including the anxiety I would be caused by not being able to move freely when I needed to) and I was told I would not be called again.

I got the letter but was never actually called.

My DH got the letter to an old address and didn’t actually get it till months later. Nothing happened. just saying

Thank you @Thereverenddoctor I don't have a psychiatrist as my symptoms are hormonal and maybe also immune-related. We don't know. I'm under the care of a rheumatologist, gynaecologist and neurologist at the moment though and was discharged by ENT this week as I've awful tinnitus too. But I really appreciate you replying as this is something that's been playing on my mind for a while.

my husband's done jury service 4 times he did the full two weeks each time.
He got another summons last year and he refused to do it again he wrote and told them he's already done it 4 times and he won't be doing it again. He never heard back from them.

I got a summons in 2017 and was excused due to my health.

Sage have you ever had your blood calcium levels and parathyroid hormones levels tested? Your symptoms sound very like ones I suffer with. Also is your vitamin D level low? How is your kidney function? Sorry way off topic! I have never been called for jury service but 3 people in my office have over the few months! I couldn't do it myself due to having hospital appointments and ongoing chronic health issues.

Sage just saw your reply above. That's another symptom I have, tinnitus 24 hours a day in both ears. Only it's gone so loud now I'm moderately deaf in both ears and wear hearing aids. I'm still under an Endocrinologist, ENT surgeon and a Haematologist. And physio occasionally when my sciatica acts up! I rarely see my GP!!

Sorry meant to say to Sage that all of my health problems are hormonal.

Oh I'd love to do jury service. Never been called :-(
I don't work and have all the time in the world.
I do suffer from panic attacks and anxiety but if I was called I would still go and hope that I would be able to manage.

It seems very unfair that some people are called several times and others not at all.

My ex husband was called and didn't want to do it. I remember pointing out that he'd only ever voted twice in his life! I still didn't feel less resentful after he told me he'd found the two weeks a total pain.

How do they select who gets the letter etc?

I got a letter 12 years ago and was able to defer as I was about to start uni- havent head anything since. But a PP’s husband has been called five times!

Are there any professions which are exempt? Police obviously and I think HM Forces. What about lawyers?

Also what if someone is just undiagnosed bonkers ie a card carrying Nazi or a pathological misogynist - would they get weeded out?

As others have said, it's unlikely that you'd be needed for more than 2 weeks and they'll take into account you don't get paid after that as they want to avoid loss of earnings claims if nothing else (as it says here www.gov.uk/jury-service/what-you-can-claim if you're there all day, you can claim £129.91 per day after day 11, which is the equivalent of an annual wage of about £33750)

Are there any professions which are exempt? Police obviously and I think HM Forces. What about lawyers?

Nope - lawyers can definitely do it. Think they widened the scope as they struggle to find people to do it (as everyone tried to find excuses!!). They raised the maximum age too to widen the pool. There was a brilliant story in the papers last month about a judge being called up, and he had to point out to them that he was actually the judge that was supposed to hear the case... and they still didn't excuse him at first

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/judge-jury-service-court-trial-salisbury-winchester-keith-cutler-a8872611.html

Police are no longer exempt.

A friend of mine used to be an ED doctor. She got a couple of hours into a case when she realised that the reason that the defendant looked vaguely familiar was because he was a patient. Unfortunately the reason she had treated him meant that she couldn’t be impartial on the case (the example she gave was if it had been someone accused of burgling houses by smashing a window then she had sewn up his hand 3 months ago after he had cut it on glass.)

So they had to stop the trial , take her out and then re-start it from the beginning with a new juror. And she couldn’t tell anyone why.

She then went on another case where she was the holdout in an 11-1 vote.

Strangely she didn’t make any new friends for life on her service!

I was called and the doctors wrote a letter saying I could not do it due to mobility issues. I think you can maybe defer it was well

As somebody has already said, this thread really demonstrates the problems with the jury system. The pool of people who could serve on a jury for more than 2 weeks must be very small.

Is there an age limit? I'd love to do it but at 50+ I've unfortunately never been asked.
Is there a maximum number of times you can be called. A pp above said they'd been called 4 times?

I deferred twice, once my work wouldn't release me, NHS and once I was breastfeeding. Please just write in, they aren't the monsters people make them out to be.

I wonder why some people are called multiple times and others never.

I do think that you should go if you possibly can. Because justice is important, and juries that were made of only people with time on their hands would be very unrepresentative and would consist largely if retired people. Nothing against them, but we need a representative cross section of society for justice to be done.
I've never been called myself. Which is a pity. I think I would quite enjoy it
Obviously, if this would cause you serious hardship and inconvenience, see if you can give it a swerve, but otherwise I would go and look on it as an experience

Mum of two - I’m surprised your friend hadn’t already given a statement as evidence in that case.