to want to be excused from Jury Service due to Covid?

[MiaThermopolis]

As 2020 is the year that keeps on giving, jury summons arrived this morning for february.

I am going to ask to be excused on the basis of 4 primary aged DC for who I am sole carer outside of school hours (DH works long hours). They could also be required to isolate at any given time and clearly you can't outsource childcare for self isolating DC!

I am also asthmatic and fat, my risk of complications from Covid is high and the thought of spending time in the city centre and then inside buildings with strangers terrifies me (I live rurally and bar the kids going to school and my weekly shop delivery I have seen no-one for months.).

Will this be enough to get me excused? I just can't deal with this right now!!

@MadameBlobby solicitors can! Law changed ages ago.

I got excused once from a dr note saying I was too unwell (severe infection) I was called up again within 2 months. Yes it was very inconvenient getting work etc covered and especially having to then wait to get a cheque sent out to then cash in and wait to it clears rather than getting paid my normal day but when I went I actually didn’t get picked so now I won’t be called up again for at least 5 years.

@MadameBlobby even judges... they have completely revolutionised the juror system - it used to be easy to get out of it but no longer. There is def a wider question of financial hardship. I have less sympathy for inconvenience.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/law/2019/apr/16/judge-summoned-for-jury-duty-at-hearing-he-would-conduct

The people going on and on about the OPs privilege to be a SAHP blah blah need to take a look in the mirror.

Its a privilege to be able to have either a partner who can take leave - paid or unpaid - to have schools with wrap around provisions, or to have family around you to help with DC in the event you are called up for service.

Honestly, get a grip.

OP, you are not being unreasonable, at all - concerns about COVID aside.

When I did jury service they paid your expenses if you keep receipts ie parking etc. You were paid normally through work as work was reimbursed through the court. Same goes for childcare if you have to pay out of pocket due to being on jury. I very rarely had to stay past 3, most days leaving after lunch. 300+ people were in the courts for jury , everyone had a number and if your number was called you served on a trial, you went back every day until your number was called for a case or to the end of the 2 weeks. If you were on a trail then obviously you stay to the remainder of the case or service was finished at the end of the 2 weeks.
If you weren't called to a trial then normally you would be leaving by half 11 the latest.

OH has just done 3 weeks jury service so he will never be called up again ( apparently). A woman asked to be excused on the first day because she had large dogs and nobody to see to them all day if she had to do jury duty. She was excused.

[quote Jangle33]@MadameBlobby solicitors can! Law changed ages ago.[/quote]
I can assure you that I am ineligible for jury duty. I am not in England.

@ilovesooty exactly! I’ve seen jurors laughing with each other, flirting with each other, nodding off. Sometimes when you get a not guilty verdict you wonder what the hell they’ve been listening to. The whole system needs an overhaul.

@Jangle33 he used the deferral but there was also specifically something on the form that allowed you to defer until youngest reached secondary school if childcare was an issue. It was very clear that you should expect to be called at any point after that so not complete excusal. I remember being relieved to see it as I had 2 under 2 at the time and my childcare arrangements certainly wouldn't be adequate for me to participate until both in school at earliest

DH is a secondary teacher and has been called for January. It'll be the 4th/5th time he's done jury service in twenty years. As he teaches mostly exam years and they've had plenty of disruption over the past year, he really needs to be available to teach in January so has requested to defer until after his subject's GCSE and A-level exams have finished. It's been granted.

You may find that your DCs' schools will help arrange childcare so you are able to do jury service. Schools I've taught at have been able to do this for parents who don't usually access wraparound provision.

** MitziK
How do some people get called up repeatedly?

I've been on the electoral roll my entire adult life and never been called once.**

Same here, I’m 51 and have never been called up. My DH was once, before I met him. I’ve always thought I’d like to be (though less so at the moment as I have long Covid.

You can ask to be excused because of childcare issues and see what they say, OP.

While I'm here I'm also going to point out that posters should not take a view that sahp can ask other sahp to do their childcare for a couple of weeks. People sah for the benefit of their own family, not to be back up childcare for other parents. There's no way I would have wanted to do someone else's childcare for two weeks for 4 kids (could be more if a trial is long) and I would not have wanted other people to look after my DC in return.
The state should pay people what it actually costs to do jury service, because it is so important.
OP, if you can defer, I suggest you get your dc accustomed to after school club so that if the need arises and they call you next year, you do have backup. I'd also look into adding coverage on your house insurance to make certain your DH gets paid if he gets called. There are things you can do to prepare for next time, but not for now in a pandemic when your husband has no leave and schools might not reopen and grandparents cannot help. MN is being unreasonable here, not you.

MN is being unreasonable here, not you.

What? People don't agree with your, and OP's, viewpoint so by default they're being unreasonable?

Really?

The people telling OP that she has to suck it up because she chose to have 4 DC and not work or who are telling her to use childcare, or get a friend to mind the kids are being unreasonable, yes.
Wraparound care tends to be oversubscribed in lots of places and not always available on an ad hoc basis. There's a pandemic - even at the best of times getting a friend to help you for weeks is a big ask but there's no chance of it now. We don't even know for sure if schools will be open. If she has no help then there's nothing she can do. It's not fair to expect her DH to take unpaid leave.
I do think that deferring is good and then putting measures in place for when Covid isn't a factor is a sound approach.

@MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously - exactly. The country is not awash with standby childcare facilities. What there is tends to be over subscribed, let alone during a pandemic when many are having to reduce capacity to create a safe environment.

But i disagree with your comment: I suggest you get your dc accustomed to after school club so that if the need arises and they call you next year, you do have backup.
Why should the OP subject her children to something they have no need to do and may not enjoy, and pay for, just on the off chance that she might get called up at some point in the future? That's ludicrous.
Is there anything else she should prepare them for? Maybe practice locking them in the attic in case we have a war and they become the next Ann Frank?

As @Yuppie20 said, 300+ were called up and most likely spent the time twiddling their their thumbs, unneeded.
And 2 weeks later another 300+ were called in and inconvenienced. What a ludicrous, inefficient system.

As for her HD just having to take time off. What if his employer won't allow him 2 weeks off? What if he's a teacher? Surgeon? or one of many other things where you can't just take time off at the drop of a hat without inconveniencing or harming many others? Bet you'd love to have an operation cancelled because the surgeon took 2 weeks off because their partner was called up for jury duty and spent 2 weeks twiddling their thumbs.

OP, I totally agree with you, being asked come and sit in a supposedly 'covid secure' room with a bunch of randoms during a pandemic for something that in no way benefits you personally is a stupid thing to do - regardless of any other logistics.

I think it would be a good idea to familiarise the DC with after school club, not only because of jury service but because you never know when you might need backup. It could be as simple as bring stuck in traffic and late for pick up. If there ever was an emergency it would be more comfortable for OP and the DC if they were familiar with alternative care.
Lots of people have said that if you defer jury service, they do still call you next year, and it would be better to have something in place, I think.

Jury service is a pain in the arse for 90% of people I’m afraid and (rightly or wrongly), being a sahm who doesn’t want other childcare isn’t going to be seen as a reasonable excuse for more than one time. Victims wait a long time for their cases to be called please don’t do any ridiculous like lie on the day.

You’ll not be made exempt if granted it’ll simply be deferred to another time so I’d put plans in place now for when that happens.

I am going to ask to be excused on the basis of 4 primary aged DC for who I am sole carer outside of school hours ....

This alone could be enough to be excused! But do ask based on this and there being 4 x the chances of being asked to self-isolate because of Covid. The overwhelming majority of potential jurors do not have 4 young children! I was excused when I had one 5 year old and it was near the summer holidays. I was not called again till he was in his late 20s. I wouldn’t mention being asthmatic and fat - both conditions are extremely common!

I have been called once but at the time lawyers were exempt.

My mum was called twice, but once when I was small so was excused on childcare grounds and the other time I think she was due to have an operation.

DH has never been called.

@BethlehemIsInTier1

Do you think you are the only one in this position *@MiaThermopolis* ?

If we all thought the same the justice system would not be able to operate.

Yes it would, we'd have a wider system of paid magistrates and judges. Works perfectly well in other jurisdictions. Jury service is yet another example of "world beating" which really isn't all that.

^BethlehemIsInTier1
Do you think you are the only one in this position @MiaThermopolis ?

If we all thought the same the justice system would not be able to operate.^

Sorry, this is nonsense. The number of women in the U.K. who have 4 children under 11 must be absolutely tiny. As said above, I was excused with just one child. I have also done jury service when I was a young woman at a time when it worked for me just fine. I have also been called more recently (twice) but not been chosen on the day.

Well people seem to think of this as something to ‘avoid’ or ‘duck out of’

We should be grateful these people do so, they don’t sound capable of being in charge of someone’s future.

You can apply for a deferment but obviously you can be called again at any time. You cannot be excused.

A woman who was on jury service with me turned up on the first day, told them she couldn't stay because her dogs were in the car and she didn't come back for the rest of the week 😂

@cologne4711 most democracies have juries for serious crimes. Theory being deprivation of Liberty shouldn’t be a decision made by a member of the upper class only.

No single unqualified person should be capable of making such decisions (ala mags) and judges are going to be criticised for being too biased or too “soft” depending on the critic, and further removed laypeople from the justice system. It’s also arguably too heavy a burden for one person to shoulder.

It’s imperfect but the fairest way.