To think jury duty is going to ruin my summer plans

[sulkingaboutjuryduty]

Got my jury duty summons which I was fairly gutted about, having recently returned from mat leave, I'm a part time accountant and I love my job.

Asked to defer and was declined, so it starts on 16th August. I have a 15 month old and a 3.5year old, the 3.5 year old has 30 free hours which I use on my 3 working days and then the baby is with my mum. In six week holidays I was planning to take a mixture of annual leave, pay for holiday clubs and mum will help out a bit. Now there will be at least 2 weeks of their "school holidays" where I can't do anything with them, I've got to fork out for childcare over and above my working pattern and reading the leaflet, it doesn't qualify for claiming back?

My work have been great and said they will pay my normal salary so I won't need to claim loss of earnings but if I've got to put them in childcare it's going to cost me a fortune! My mum can't have them on my non working weekdays as she works, the baby will need a settling in period and the childcare setting I use require a months' notice to terminate so I'm looking at possibly six weeks nursery fee for her.
I'm just feeling like I will be significantly impacted by this.

Bear in mind that it might not be just 2 weeks.

I ended up spending a month on a murder trial at the Old Bailey. Some poor sods I met in the canteen were on a tedious VAT case, 3 months and no end in sight.

I'm not actually convinced that jury trials are a good thing at all. The past year has not given me much confidence in the ability of a significant proportion of the population to listen to and understand what is being said.

A bit harsh, Nofruitta! OP, it’s completely understandable that you are concerned about the disruption and cost this will cause!

I too would love to do it but it would have cost my tiny employer thousands for me not to be working as I was charged out.
Also they didn't pay as much as my salary was at the time so I actually couldn't afford to do it.

They would get a lot more people agreeing if they were more flexible.

Now I work for a bigger company who would still pay me, I would definitely do it if called up again

I am sorry to hear you're having to deal with his.

I was in my own "argh, this isnt the time for jury duty!" time last year during the pandemic. I was lucky enough to be granted deferral, but one piece of advice I was given is that if all else fails you turn up to the duty on the first day and when they ask/choose who is going to actually do the duty and who will go home, tell them then that you don't want to be there and are worried because you don't think you will do a good job (cite lack of sleep with young child, farming duties around the edge of your day job or or whatever). Apparently there's a reasonable chance you will be discharged then - I haven't had to test it though.

When my husband did jury duty it was a really high profile, long case. When he turned up on the first day the potential jurors were told they would need to allow 3 months. He said all the women with young children were excused, so the jury ended up being men and older women. I think you’ll have to go on 16th and see what happens. The hours may not be as bad as you fear, or you may be excused entirely.

I’m 54 and have never been called up. I know some people have been called up several times. I’d love it.

I was called 2 years ago - they seem to call more people than they need - criminals plead guilty on the day and cases are cancelled or there maybe other issues. Loads of people sent home the first day and told they won’t be needed again.
I was told to go home and then got texts with times to go in on a daily basis.
Some longer cases but you had a choice to attend these so not compulsory.
Your mother sounds your best bet as I’m sure it won’t be for the 2 full weeks. I think flexibility is what you need.
Take a book to read!!!

Be a citizen and stop morning

I'm assuming you mean "moaning". What a stupid comment. It's not a matter of being a citizen. It's a matter of the government not making adequate adjustments for people with caring responsibilities and those whose finances don't allow them to take part in jury service without being left in a precarious position. Maybe you could afford to take the financial hit. Maybe you don't have other obligations. Not everyone is in the same position.

@CrimsonImp

I'm not actually convinced that jury trials are a good thing at all. The past year has not given me much confidence in the ability of a significant proportion of the population to listen to and understand what is being said.

Very good point. I knew there were some hard of thinking people, but I’ve been really shocked at how unintelligent many people are, who just don’t understand basic concepts.

I thought you could appeal on childcare reasons you should be absolutely not be out of pocket.

@Ravenclawsome

Not sure if you are in England or Scotland but I think you can appeal directly to the sheriff/judge on the first day.

I've had to do it as I'm a court reporter.

The bods in the office are essentially reading from a list. In my case they said "we don't excuse journalists", whereas the judge took my point that I have a high probability of familiarity with a case and it's a waste of time and money to keep calling me.

Somewhat absurdly my BIL is a lawyer and automatically barred from jury service despite not having been near a criminal court in nearly 20 years (I'm not saying he should, just absurd that I'm not when my whole working week is in a court room).

In your case I would say it would cause financial hardship. It might not work but it's worth a punt.

In England lawyers aren't barred from doing jury duty. They categories of people who are actually barred from it are narrow and don't include lawyers.

@Twoforthree

I’m 54 and have never been called up. I know some people have been called up several times. I’d love it.

I have never been called up either, I would love it to. Jury service in August would disrupt everyone’s “summer plans”. But if everyone tried to wriggle out of it where would we be.

A lady I know claimed for a dog sitter, as she was retired and spent every day with her dog.

So am I right I understanding that your baby has never attended childcare before? This is mad to think they can force you to leave such a young child in unfamiliar surroundings.
Does your older child's nursery take babies? Could you speak to them. It's possible that they will have a temporary space in August if there are either children out on holiday or lots of term-time children that won't be there then.

I think it’s difficult as you may not even be required to go in and not sure if you can still claim expenses in those circumstances. My husband got called up in may and because of COVID was told he would just receive a text each morning to say if required in that day. He didn’t go in once in the end

Also, not in any way relevant to my refused deferral but in the pack I received yesterday, there is a covid advice leaflet stating that whilst we are inside the court building, we are required to wear a mask. So that is what? 6 hours + a day in a face mask? But when I'm in the office I don't wear one.

Just rock up to court with the kids and say you couldn’t find suitable childcare.

“CrimsonImp
I'm not actually convinced that jury trials are a good thing at all. The past year has not given me much confidence in the ability of a significant proportion of the population to listen to and understand what is being said.”

The mask is irrelevant. I wear one all day at my workplace.

@Zzelda he might be in for a shock if hes in England as that is absolutely not the case. I work for a major national law firm and we always have lawyers out on jury service

As others have said you can claim the childcare or if you can't secure childcare request to defer because you can't get it. They can't force it if you have dependents and no care

Sorry posted to soon. I agree with @CrimsonImp I wouldn’t want to be tried by a jury

So your DM and MIL are tied up. But what about your father? FIL?