AIBU to to expect to be excused from jury duty?! Request to be excused denied!😱

[TotallyScrewed]

Like many others the last 10 months or so has been an absolute shitshow😅 Partner and I both work, have been homeschooling a 7 year old and we have two preschoolers who’ve been at home with us for long stretches of time when nursery is shut.

Now I’ve been called for jury duty!!!😱 I thought, well, SURELY my request for excusal will be approved!

• I’m homeschooling
• When nursery is open the little ones need collecting at 3 and I am the only one who can do it (no family nearby and husband works late)
• I’m also a university lecturer slap bang in the middle of term. I know work is supposed to give you time off for this but I would feel bad for my students (especially the dissertation ones!) suddenly disappearing on them!!!

I explained all these things and my request for excusal was refused!!! I’m quite shocked to be honest. I do totally understand the importance of jury duty and in normal times I would be so happy to oblige but I’m already barely keeping my head above water as it is😭😭😭

Has anyone successfully been excused and if so on what grounds?!

Also, vote away!
IABU: There’s nothing special about you, do your bloody jury duty.
IANBU: You’ve suffered enough and should be excused😂

@Iwantedtrianglesnotsquares

I had to do jury duty the second time. I was excised the first, so had to go the second time. No excuses allowed. When we were then selected for the trials, you can plead your case for not doing it to the judge in the court room before the jurors are sworn in. It then depends on that judge, and the case length, other people’s excuses. Luckily I was excused by the judge from a very long case, but it was very close as my son had an operation week 3 (jury duty was 2 weeks), and as the judge said, my husband could have been there for my son’s operation if the training jury pool had better reasons to be excused. That was at the old bailey.

If my child was having an operation, there’s no way I’d be able to focus my mind on a court case that day. If I were on trial, I wouldn’t want one of the jurors sitting there wondering how their child’s operation was going.

I'm not saying it would be easy, but someone's got to do it and I'd imagine the only real grounds for being excused now is general sickness or vulnerability to Covid.

Most people have kids and work. Sorry - looks like your husband will need to use some annual leave or adjust his working for a while.

I'm 59 and could easily fit jury service into my life - adult children and no other caring responsibilities, part-time job with supportive employer, no health problems. This has been the case for umpteen years. My husband's in the same position. Have either of us ever been summoned? No. I'd love to do it. Pity there isn't a swap system.

Truthfully I think I'd send a sick note with stress as the issue.

Are nurseries open where you are? They are closed in Scotland. Trying to care for young kids and home school and work is torture.

You probably have more on your plate than most.

I got refused and I literally couldn’t do it so I didn’t go. I’d told them I wouldn’t turn up as I have severe social anxiety and can’t cope with change etc/new environments and I couldn’t face it.
So I didn’t go and nothing happened and I haven’t been called again

I have been called 3 times, but have not done jury service yet. The 1st time I was called I was excused as there was a bereavement in my family. The 2nd time I was called to the Old Bailey, but would have been 8 months pregnant l, so obviously was excused. The 3rd time, I was arranging childcare to cover my jury service time and they rang and told me they overbooked and I was no longer needed.

I think you need to try and defer, as during normal times you could get childcare help, but during Covid it would be difficult to set up a childcare arrangement.

When I was called for jury service, I was in the final stage of my divorce and waiting for a date for the hearing where the money gets sorted.
I requested a deferral on the grounds that I would be required in court but didn't yet have a date and they were fine with it.

That was in 2013, and I've not been asked again yet, but two colleagues of mine have done jury service twice in 10 years.

I was a bit pissed off that they wanted me to attend at a court 12 miles away (with no parking nearby and a difficult journey by public transport) when there's a perfectly good Crown Court within walking distance of my house. And they hear cases from the whole county and the nearby city, so it's not as though there was a risk of me knowing people involved in the trials.

It's a pain, but I think YABU here. The clue is in the name, it's a duty. Most of us would like the court to have the resources it needs if we ever needed to rely on it, so we should turn up when called, barring genuine excuses.

Feel for you though, this year has been especially tough on working parents.

DP did jury service before Christmas, a 3 week case so he will never be called again. On the first day when they select the jury, two were sent home because they knew one of the victims and one women was excused because she had " large dogs and nobody to let them out during the day".
As an aside, DP lost out on over £500 of wages(shift allowances)which the large company he works for should have paid, but have wriggled out of. He's now having to claim it through the court service.

I’ve been called twice - once I rang the number every day for a week and was never selected for a jury. The second time I deferred because I was pregnant and my 20 week scan was two days after the trial began, and I rang and said that I was happy to turn up on the Mon, but I was going to the scan on the Wed come what may. They said that pregnancy wasn’t a valid excuse but medical appointments were. I had to send them a copy of my scan appointment letter, and although it was a deferral I’ve never been called again and DS is now 6.

What would the university do if you were seriously ill and couldn't work. Would they have an acceptable stand in who could teach/supervise your dissertation students effectively?

Can your DH take leave to look after the children and do home schooling while you do the jury duty.

Only if the answers to both questions are no, should you expect to be excused. I'd maybe ask your employer to write to the court outlining why you should defer/be excused, but unless your DH is frontline medical staff or similar, him stepping up to free you to be on the juty should be your first option.

My partner was excused a couple of weeks ago because he lost his job in the entertainment industry last August and only managed to get warehouse work recently through an agency. If he were to take time off he would be replaced and not paid and it might take another six months to find something else. I was really worried they wouldn’t care but that reason was accepted.

Did you ask to defer or be excused altogether? There’s a big difference. Like you say it would be different for you in normal times.

It’s very difficult, there’s an enormous backlog in the criminal courts because of Covid.

Do you have any medical conditions? I used the (admittedly mild) asthma card to get out of it last year as there was no way I was willing to sit maskless in a room full of people I don't know for potentially days on end when all the government advice is stay at home etc etc and I can't go to see 1 person indoors who's potentially not been in contact with another person for weeks. I don't care how good they claim their procedures are, it didn't sit right with me.

I was excused because I had students coming up to exams and didn't want to desert them - so much the same grounds you mention. So I am surprised they denied you. Though they do have a backlog.

But... be careful what you wish for. I was so glad to be excused when it was only the local magistrate's court. But you can't be excused twice. Next time I got landed with a very lengthy and disturbing Old Bailey case which lost me the most lucrative long term freelance contract I'd ever had at that point and haunted me for years. I regret wriggling out of a few days judging whether some dodgy geezer fenced some i-phones.

Can you get your work to write a letter? I'm also an academic and if I were to be called for jury duty during term time there wouldn't be anyone else in my department who could cover the specialist teaching and supervision I do.

I voted YANBU but not because of the the home school or nursery pick up reasons.
I would focus (if the opportunity arises) on the criticality of your work aspect, that can’t be covered without an impact on your students’ outcomes.

Just turn up with the toddler and tell them you have no childcare or family nearby that can help as school/nursery shut, but your request to be excused was turned down. They can either send you home or find you childcare!

Husband needs to step in here with children presumably?

It’s obscene they’ve not let you off of jury service, given your circumstances.

Obscene is a bit strong!

Jury duty is a vital public duty. If you were on trial you’d want a balanced jury wouldn’t you?

‘Ordinary’ commitments aren’t a reason to get out of jury duty. Imagine if no mothers of young children, or lecturers, ever served on a jury. It’s a tough situation for you and I do sympathise, but you should try to defer, not to be excused.

I was excused last year. I got a High Court jury duty citation and I got a doctors note to accompany my request for excusal. I have severe anxiety and self harm behaviour that tends to be triggered by the feeling of needing to 'protect' my family from the bad things happening out there by taking pain myself. I knew that the risk of a serious trial would trigger self harm behaviour.

I was cited to attend jury duty in a sheriff court this year and I'm doing that next week. Not looking forward to it...my anxiety issues are still huge so I'm terrified of having a panic attack. It just takes being in a strange situation to cause it. But I felt that since I was a childless individual with no care responsibilities, I morally couldn't ask to be excused when so many other people can't attend. I just need to try to be brave and survive it!

I was excused when my eldest was a few months old - I just sent the form back saying I was breastfeeding and didn't have anyone to look after the baby while my DH was at work. I haven't been called up again yet, but would like to do it one day.

OP I'm really surprised you weren't excused - is there a number you can call and speak to someone?

I don’t think it’s a valid excuse

Your DH needs to look after his children. Is he wfh? He could pick up from nursery and home school your 7 year old the same as you have been doing whilst working.
Your students need to do without you for 2 weeks. They would have to if you had to isolate.

What would the university do if you were seriously ill and couldn't work. Would they have an acceptable stand in who could teach/supervise your dissertation students effectively?

It would have to be really seriously ill. Colleagues have supervised from their hospital beds before - including ones who have eventually died. Students have been handed on for different reasons, but except in a small number of cases, there has been disruption and unhappy students as a result. Often the notice period that academics are required to give is longer than most so that there is plenty of lead-up if they leave - students are often given the choice to follow them if they wish.

I attended as called. It wasn't ideal in timing, new job, new leaders, change of role but I figured that by deferring I was more at risk of being asked again at a time much more inconvenient, including the summer holidays. ( perhaps not an issue at the minute though).