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😂

Wow so many responses! I’m teaching this morning but will reply later.

@IEat

If nobody rearranged their days for a week or so no one would sit on the jury, no cases would be heard. Your employer has to give you time off. Someone can cover your work schedule. Your partner can cover childcare.

I think you're forgetting about Covid!!

You are not bu but the jury system is such an odd one isn’t it? I’ve only been called once 19 years ago with a newborn and breastfeeding so they said that’s fine- I’ve never been called since and I’d love to do it. My parents have never been called and my dad especially would have loved to do it. DSis has never been asked- that’s just my immediate family. Yet some people are asked more than once. As someone said upthread, there should be a list of people that are interested in doing it as well as general call up.

I would love to do jury service but have never heard anything, are people just randomly picked?

Heavily pregnant got me excused ! I deffo think you should be thou what a nightmare!! X

Did you ask to defer or be completely excused.

If you employer supports the timing is not possible with a letter and you can give alternative dates it will be deferred.

Childcare is not a reason unless there are exception circumstances, you need to find some or your dh needs to step in.

To those saying show up with your kids asking where the creche is and you'll be sent home - yes you will be sent home, but it is also likely you will be fined for it. They don't mess about.

Crimes continue to be committed during the pandemic and jurors are still needed.

Lots of people’s responses here are out of date. The court service has really tightened up in excusing people from jury service precisely for the reason too many people were getting out of it. And like other posters have said, as far as possible, juries should be made up of a cross representation of society. They shouldn’t just be filled with the unemployed, retired etc.

I honestly think your best bet is asking for a deferral. On the form I filled in a few weeks ago you had to give them three alternate dates you could do. I heard back very quickly that they accepted one of my alternate dates and that I had to attend then- there could be no further deferral.

I thought, well, SURELY my request for excusal will be approved!

I'm surprised that you're so surprised. It sounds difficult, but there's nothing exceptional or even remotely unusual about your situation. I am in a very similar position to you in that I work full time in Education and am combining this with homeschooling a primary school aged child and looking after a toddler. My DH also works long hours. If I got called for Jury Duty now I wouldn't exactly be thrilled about it but I wouldn't expect to be let off, it would be inconvenient but not impossible. DH would simply have to explain to his employer that as I was doing Jury service the lion's share of childcare will fall to him for a couple of weeks. They can either give him leave or manage their expectations accordingly. Older DC would get a place at school as Jury service counts as critical work.

The people telling you to turn up with kids in tow so you get sent home or feign "stress" to obtain a doctor's note should be ashamed of themselves.

I was deferred 10 years ago it would of worked out ds2 would of been 3/4 months old at that point. Havent heard anything from them since.

I deferred once ( I think because the dates fell on half term ) but I was given alternative dates and went. There was a lot of sitting around waiting to see if I was going to be picked. In fact I wasn’t used at all the first week and finished everyday at 2pm. At the end of the first week I was told I wouldn’t be needed for the second week which I was a bit disappointed about... I would have actually liked to have heard a case.
On a general note our juries should be reflect a broad cross section of society. I think it’s fine to defer right now but not to seek to find ways to permanently avoid that responsibility. ( not particularly directed at the OP just a general comment )

I was called when heavily pregnant and then obvs would have had a small baby so got excused.
Got called hp again 9 years later and did it last year - the first dates they gave me were no good as l was going on holiday so l deferred and you can give dates you can't do rather than dates you can. Bloody loved it - used to switch my phone off all day and slip off the radar so DH cooked and cleaned all week - some days they didn't need me but l went to the city anyway and obviously wasn't allowed to discuss the case so was a perfect opportunity for some me time!!
What an nightmare for you OP

I was called up twice when DS was a baby/toddler. The woman at the court was extremely helpful telling me how to handle the forms ... I had to provide proof that I couldn't access childcare. In my case an email from nursery saying they couldn't give my son a place on the extra days required sufficed. The courts seemed to think that because they pay a pittance for childcare allowance that there are no other childcare issues. If you can't access after school care get an email confirming this and send it in, also from a childminder saying no spaces available

People saying turn up with the kids are seriously deluded. I would not for one minute fuck with the courts. These are places where incredibly serious offences are being tried and they want to cause a scene because they’ve been asked to find alternative childcare.

Usually they’re pretty good with excusing people but everyone under the sun wants to be excused right now and we need juries. The backlog of cases is insane already.

And I disagree with those PP who say childcare isn't a reason - sorry when you have no family nearby and no alternatives I think it is. Perhaps courts need to understand that court hours should be limited to allow parents to be part of juries.

I’d contact my MP about this, it’s really not possible that during this pandemic parents are expected to do jury service as well as homeschool/pick up the gaps
In childcare currently, and I’d expect parents in this situation automatically get excused at this point. In addition there is also your teaching which is also important given the disruption to date.

It’s not that you won’t use alternative childcare; it’s that it’s closed and we are discouraged from using it (grandparents etc, even if they were available due to increased risk to them; after school and holiday clubs closed; the usually mixture of friends/family you’d rely on not allowed as it would break all the rules).

I deferred; my duty fell in a period where we were about to hold our AGM which I had a key role in. My boss wrote a letter explaining this, and I wrote to say I'd be happy to do it another time - I got called again about three months later and did it then. Wasn't assigned a case for the first two days, and then a small fraud one from the Wednesday to Friday, and then nothing the following week. I'd had to take annual leave as my organisation didn't pay salary for jury duty and the expenses didn't cover it, so just took that week off as leave.

I was excused as I was SAHM at the time and my husband worked away.

Did you ask to be excused or to defer? They don’t excuse you for those reasons but will defer

I deferred as it was going to fall in my final assessed placement of my degree. I deferred until the summer and they were fine about it. I found it interesting and i'd like to be called again one day.

My mum recently had to do jury duty. She still works very part time but also has caring responsibilities for parents and grandchildren. I do think jury duty does unfairly penailies people who have unpaid responsibilitoes. As paid work is covered but nothing else is. Feels very male dominant view.

If course jury duty is important but why are we asking people who are now homeschooling or caring for people to do it now? When there are people available like me who don't ahev additional responsibilities at this point.

@Dougt

I’d contact my MP about this, it’s really not possible that during this pandemic parents are expected to do jury service as well as homeschool/pick up the gaps In childcare currently, and I’d expect parents in this situation automatically get excused at this point. In addition there is also your teaching which is also important given the disruption to date.

It’s not that you won’t use alternative childcare; it’s that it’s closed and we are discouraged from using it (grandparents etc, even if they were available due to increased risk to them; after school and holiday clubs closed; the usually mixture of friends/family you’d rely on not allowed as it would break all the rules).

The OP has a husband, she’s not being expected to use grandparents etc. Their other parent is being expected to step up

@Deathraystare - "Oh and one of your fellow jury persons will be a complete know it all" - we absolutely had one of these!

Our defendant didn't turn up so was tried in absentia. Not surprising really as he'd done a runner from his first trial, and was approached by the authorities when he arrived back at the airport from Dubai. Then he left his wife and kids at Arrivals, and legged it out of the airport on foot, before being caught hiding in a bush at the petrol station near the motorway!

If the state was willing to cover his wages, then it would be fine for him to take time off (so long as his work could spare him) to cover this. But he shouldn't have to automatically do this and suck up any loss because he wasn't the one who was called. The jury service interferes with the time the OP is responsible for the children.
Couples are still individuals, not interchangeable to suit the requirements of the state - if the state expects to interfere in the husband's work situation because the wife has been called for jury service, they ought to be liable for the consequences of that.
Because juries are so important and a genuine cross section of people are needed, it's time the state valued juries and didn't just try to get away with the cheapest option possible.

You can be excused for caring responsibilities. My aunt was excused as full-time carer. She was disappointed though as she would ordinarily have loved to do it.

If you ask to defer you can request certain dates/say when you’re unavailable.

When I did jury service anyone wishing to escape a longer case had to see the judge . They said they were only accepting proof of booked holidays or medical procedures as valid excuses.

I think a lot of people on MN are belligerent “why should I?” types, as everyone I’ve met in real life was excited at the prospect of jury service. Mostly the cases are a bit pedestrian, but sometimes there’s a very interesting one and all the procedure is fascinating.