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😂

I am at risk of increased respiratory disease and they would not excuse me from jury duty in march last year. It was terrifying. I pleaded and pleaded and I never forget being surround by jurors who had flown in from Europe. I remember two people had a hacking cough and I complained but they would not move them.

I complained to jury manager, they said they would try get me a short case. They did not care about caring duties and my husband having to take unpaid leave so I could go. Eventually they were going to get me on a 6 week case.

They put really elderly people on a long trial and they did not care when they brought up covid. In the end I was excused after sitting around for 3 days but I did complain.

I now wonder if the elderly people survived covid and the journey on public transport.
Also you can not really get excuses from work these days unless they are pretty substantial.

I have to do the jury service in the next two years but I am so glad I avoided it during covid.

I think it took a few judges getting ill for them to change the system.

I also think it is really awful the way they don't care about parents with young children, but they need people to do their jury duty.

My DH would be no help, he is a key worker outside the home with statutory legal and on call duties, I could possibly get him to juggle things to sit with the other kids while I take one in the doctors for 20minutes if he’s working in the area, but no more than that. I guess that’s a bit more specific than saying someone works hard

Thanks all I rang up and get a deferral! As I said a few times I’m happy to do it, but it’s (almost) impossible right now.

To the person who said “if you want the right to vote you should do jury service” @FrickinA ...

It’s funny you should mention that as I’m not actually allowed to vote in this country (I’m European). I get to pay taxes and do jury duties but at the same time don’t have a voice. Nice, isn’t it?!

I live in dread of this .
Over 15 years ago i was called , i had 2 children at the time at a school 2 miles away that i drove them to.
I explained via letter how i could not get to court for the start time they would want me there and no after school care.
I am married but didn't mention husband in my logistics , i wasn't asked but neither did i lie.
I was asked when my situation would change, i gave them the date that my youngest child would leave that school.
My reason was accepted and i have not heard from them again.
I don't care what any body thinks about me getting off with jury service ,moral duty etc ,i do not want to do it ever , i know it would probably be quite boring , but it could be horrific and i don't want something like that affecting my life thereafter .
My husband would have willingly stepped in for me ,he would love to do it.
I believe that no one should be forced to do jury service , there are lots of people who are willing and able to do it .
I would write to them ,clearly stating everything the way you have in your post, its obvious you have a lot of commitments at the moment .

DH (secondary teacher) has done jury service four times in the twenty years we've been married and was called up again for January. When our DC were younger and he worked four days a week (as did I), I think we managed by asking nursery to have DC1 for the extra days when we only had one child and asked a friend to look after DC2 (DC1 was school age) once we had two. The DC will look after themselves when he does it this time, just as they do whilst I'm in school every day and DH is in his school every day.

This January was never going to be a good time for him to be on jury duty because of the disruption schools and students have already faced. Being on jury service would mean him not having been available to support with the coursework elements of the sixth form courses or, as it turns out, to offer remote support during online teaching. He requested a deferral for the summer term, once actual teaching was due to have finished. That was accepted so he's expecting to be called for June.

Just read your update , great news !

Good news!
Lots of people are really struggling just now to keep plates spinning.

My comment still stands as jurors are chosen from the electoral register and therefore most of those called to jury service will have the right to vote.
And as for paying your taxes, well done you. That’s what happens when you work and live in a country, you pay their taxes as you’re using their resources.

It’s funny you should mention that as I’m not actually allowed to vote in this country (I’m European). I get to pay taxes and do jury duties but at the same time don’t have a voice.

As I understand it reciprocal voting rights have not been agreed, although they've confirmed the right to vote in local elections remains for may 2021.

I think you can only sit on a jury if you can also vote in local elections, so if those rights change you may no longer be eligible.

While I was an academic I would love to have been called as my employer would have given me time off with pay no problem. Later when I began my own business I begrudged having to take the time off.

I asked to be excused on the grounds of very limited mobility (had DWP evidence) and also explained that I had panic attacks in crowded settings. I was excused without having to produce any medical evidence and am now over the age at which I can be called.

I have never been called. It used to be that lawyers like I am were not eligible but that changed and even so I have never been called - which is fine by me.

on childcare costs many parents have to pay £10 per hour plus for Nanny's tax/NI and employer NI so if there are additional childcare costs and it is 10 hours a day including traveling and a 4 week trial that could be £2000 + of childcare costs presumably covered IF you can find a daily nanny. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/689220/juror-s-childcare-vulnerable-adult-elderly-care-provision-expenses-claim-eng.pdf

@noteacake - crap about “very elderly people” as jury service ends at 70. Are you saying that people are “very elderly” at 69 years old?! If they were that decrepit they could have got a medical exemption, but as for wondering if all the very elderly on your case survived - hyperbole, much!

I was called up for jury duty a few years ago, whilst I was a paralegal and practice manager at a criminal defence firm. My boss believed I should be excused (he would) and proceeded to write one of his long drawn out letters explaining that due to my job, and the fact I was at the crown courts in our area at least two or three days a week, it was likely that I would know a lot of the prosecution and defence barristers, thereby being a conflict of interest. It failed and I did my two weeks, just before Christmas, to my boss’ chagrin! So, there are very few reasons to avoid jury duty, it’s not easy to get out of!

@IrmaFayLear well one person said to judge he is approaching 70 and had a long commute through central London and was not allowed to defer. I felt another woman was very elderly so I apologise for getting that wrong.

But yes cramped together for long periods of time.

You may call my view hyerbole - it is just my view.

I still think it was utterly poor that it took so long to change the set up.

This was around the time Boris was slow to move on Covid so I don't feel the need to apologise for hyperbole.

No masks, not allowed to wear a mask and cramped in a room with poor air circulation.

It really was not hyperbole. People in an enclosed room coughing badly.

To me it just summed up Boris and his approach.

Always too little too late.

I am also a university teacher, and successfully requested a deferral on similar grounds to yours. I did do the jury service a few months later (it consisted of sitting around in the waiting room every day for two weeks, while first one trial and then another got repeatedly postponed and then cancelled, so I didn't actually get to experience a courtroom scene!)

In the same boat here. Deferral denied.

Have you called them??
I was called up pre covid, I was able to defer due to work commitments which were genuine I think I had to provide a letter from my employer. However then covid hit and I couldn't do the new dates, I rang up and said I am a single parent with no childcare and due to covid grandparents are shielding, they cancelled it there and then and I got a letter to confirm. Call them! They should at a minimum defer it.

Sorry just read your update that's good it's sorted!

It’s very unlikely to be excused altogether although some people can get deferred for a short period.

Glad it's sorted. I think it would have been very unfair on the students completing dissertations.

I think DH was excused altogether, presumably because his hearing will never improve.

@FrickinA

My comment still stands as jurors are chosen from the electoral register and therefore most of those called to jury service will have the right to vote. And as for paying your taxes, well done you. That’s what happens when you work and live in a country, you pay their taxes as you’re using their resources.

@FrickinA you might want to read up on what “no recourse to public funds” actually means. It’s a condition attached to a lot of visas. For example, DH pays a relatively high rate of tax, but cannot access GP or NHS for free. If he loses his job or becomes disabled, he’s not entitled to job seekers, pip/disability payments or any benefits of any kind. He also pays 50% of our council tax bill (I pay the other 50% obviously!).

So yes, he’s paying the taxes, but not actually using the “resources”. This might also apply to the op so your snippy “well done you” comment doesn’t really work.

Driving on public roads that need to be looked after is using resources, sending your kids to your local school uses resources, using the park or the beach uses resources, using any council services of any kind uses resources... etc etc etc

And no, your council tax doesn’t cover all council services, money still comes from the larger public purse.