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.

[Feelingbad2]

You need to tell them you are not prepared to put your young child in nursery it will cause you and her distress etc.

I got a summons when heavily pregnant with my youngest child. They wanted me to go when he would be 2-3 weeks old! Thankfully that got me out of it x

[Beannag]

@RealhousewifeofStoke

4,000 acres. What’s the farms annual turnover?
Am sure you could stretch to paying a family friend/niece/nephew/neighbour/childcare student/teaching student to help you out with childcare and making lunches or running with parts.

It’s your civic duty. And you’ve clearly never been in the position of being the victim, or family of the victim of a crime requiring a jury trial. As I hope you never are.
But your talk around claiming for childcare, given your family circumstances are beyond ridiculous.
Good luck and I have no doubt you’ll get out of it.

OP says happy to defer, I hope you're never on a jury as you seemingly either cannot read properly, or have jumped to conclusions based on nothing.

[museumum]

I’ve had three citations and still never set foot in the building. Each time I had to phone up every evening for a week and every time a recorded message said “not tomorrow but call in again tomorrow evening”.
There was no loss of earnings paid as I didn’t sit but I’m self employed and had to clear my calendar so I did lose out quite a bit.

My advice though is do not secure a nursery place you wouldn’t otherwise want or go through settling. The balance of probabilities is you won’t need it.

[Testarossa44]

You could get a temporary nanny, either through childcare.co.uk, advertise what you need. Lots of nannies who do adhoc or temp work are self employed. Or contact a local nanny agency who may be able to ind someone for you. At least the children will be at home, and you’ll not have the worry of drop off or pick up.

[Newmumatlast]

@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.

Lawyers used to be auto barred but my understanding is that now they arent. In UK at least

[BearOfEasttown]

@sulkingaboutjuryduty YANBU and as a pp said, I would totally lie, and say I am breastfeeding (if it's not too late for you to do that.)

It's a fucking RIDICULOUS situation, and absurd to the extreme that these clueless powers-that-be call up young mums like this. It should be made law that any woman with children under 12 are not called for jury duty, because what the fuck are you meant to do with your primary-school age children?

I agree with a pp that it's outdated and misogynistic. I also agree with the pp saying 'trial by jury' is utter bollocks anyway, and needs consigning to the history books... 12 random people who know fuckall about the person in the dock, and many who know fuckall about much else, deciding whether you go to prison or not!

As for the 'I would LOVE to do jury duty' brigade. GOOD FOR YOU! It does seem to be middle aged and older people, and people with no school age children who come out with this though! Try being called up for it when you have one or more children under 10, and having to deal with the nightmare with childcare issues.

Some people are so insensitive and obtuse. Yeah, so people have successfully 'got out of it.' Good for them! 'It's your civic duty' some cry. So what? It's a democratic country, and no-one should be forced to do ANYthing. What's more, we have the 'I would LOVE to do it' brigade, so maybe we should have a juror volunteer register, so all the smug 'it's your civic duty' fuckers can put their name down!!

I also agree with a pp that the OP who said it's a great, exciting experience is talking crap. It will either be boring to the extreme, and take you away from your family, OR it will be harrowing and upsetting.

My brother wants to do it desperately, and have a really long trial, so he can get months off work, because he hates his job. He doesn't realise though, that he may be away from home for months on end, and staying in a hotel with the rest of the jurors. It won't be like a holiday! He will be trapped, restricted in what he can do and where he can go, he probably won't be allowed to use his phone, and he will be away from home for a number of months.

Being a juror is no picnic. It's shit, and the ones who say 'I would love to do it!' will be eating their words when/if they are called up.

And yes. I HAVE done it. Won't say what for or what trial. But I have. And I hated every minute of it.

[DoubleTweenQueen]

@sulkingaboutjuryduty I think you can pull out completely - my DH did, second half of last year, due to our dds health issues and family logistics being too untenable.

[BearOfEasttown]

@worriedaboutN

When I got summoned I had a 10 month old bf baby and I asked to defer and got rejected

I told them I refused and I wouldn’t be attending. My baby was still being bf multiple times a day and we contact napped so I wasn’t able to go.
I sent a gp letter too explaining it would be detrimental to my mental health and they still tried to refuse a deferral !
In the end the accepted it I literally wouldn’t have turned up though

THIS is the kind of thing I was on about in my second paragraph.

Utter, clueless powers-that-be!

How and why the fuck they expected you to do jury service just beggars belief. Batshit.

[HaveringWavering]

Can’t you ask Emma Grundy if she wants some part- time childcare work?

[Herbie0987]

When I was called for jury service with one child at school and a baby, I couldn’t find any full day childcare that would cover both of them, dad couldn’t take the time off. I wrote to the court and was excused due to lack of childcare.

[SoupDragon]

I agree with a pp that it's outdated and misogynistic

Yes. This is the problem, not people wanting to avoid doing their "civic duty"

[looptheloopinahulahoop]

It’s your civic duty. And you’ve clearly never been in the position of being the victim, or family of the victim of a crime requiring a jury trial

Nonsense. Other countries manage perfectly well without having unqualified jurors. There's no need to inconvenience people to the level we do in the UK. People can lose their jobs or livelihoods if they are pulled onto a lengthy trial and it can be harrowing too.

I'm interested that someone got out of it as a lawyer, as lawyers don't get excused anymore. I got out of it when I was trainee solicitor but that was before they changed the rules. I hope I am never called.

[Justfivemoreminutesplease]

Lawyer here and I got called up for Jury service - the rules have now changed and we are allowed. However on day one I watched a video and then sat in a room for 3 hours with all of the other jurors only to then be told that we weren’t needed and were discharged for the rest of the two weeks. Three trials were due that week - one was postponed, the other no longer happening (I did wonder why) and the other trial already had its jury. So you may not be needed for more than a few hours on day 1. Ever since I’ve told my tale, others have said exactly the same happened to them.

[TatianaBis]

You can’t count on it being short. I was on a long drawn out rape trial.

If op doesn’t appeal before it starts and it turns out to be long she’s snookered.

[MrsTulipTattsyrup]

@sulkingaboutjuryduty

I requested to defer due to childcare issues and due to timing clashing with harvest and I received a notification to say my deferral was refused and that I was required to attend on 16th August - there was no advice on further recourse?

So I think I will go on 16th and try to plead with them on the day - is that the next option available to me? MIL has said this morning I could leave baby with her but she will be driving backwards and forwards from the yard to the fields with diesel/lunch/repairs for the boys and so it won't be the best option for her.

I'm one of those people who likes planning and routine and so it's stressing me out that everything will be thrown up into the air for this.

I really support the concept of jury duty but it seems frustrating that there are so many people who would LOVE to do it, and so many of us forced to do it at a particular time which will make life a logistical nightmare.

I think it’s probably the case that people who want to do jury duty THAT badly probably aren’t doing it for altruistic reasons and probably aren’t best suited to the job

[Ravenclawsome]

@Zzelda

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)

If he's in England, he isn't barred from jury duty.

We're in Scotland.
He's barred, I'm not - despite spending more time in the criminal courts in a month than he has since graduating.

[NoddyMcdoddy]

Off topic but I am astounded that employers do not have to pay employees attending jury duty, In ROI it is illegal for an employer to not pay employees full wage, I naively assumed this would be same in UK.

[HalzTangz]

Although you have to be prepared for two weeks jury duty, you may find you will only be a day or two.
Could the nursery they already attend and are settled at not allow them to full weeks.
I don't understand why you need 6 weeks nursery if they already attend a nursery

[Watapalava]

You may be cancelled

I - and 3 others i know -were all called in the last couple of months and were cancelled 3 days before. thinks they've massively over calling because of covid and isolations etc. You could just say you have to isolate. They cant ask for proof due to all the lft/confidentitality

[museumum]

@HalzTangz

Although you have to be prepared for two weeks jury duty, you may find you will only be a day or two.
Could the nursery they already attend and are settled at not allow them to full weeks.
I don't understand why you need 6 weeks nursery if they already attend a nursery

The baby isn’t in nursery and the older child is in a term-time only setting/contract.

[BearOfEasttown]

@NoddyMcdoddy

Off topic but I am astounded that employers do not have to pay employees attending jury duty, In ROI it is illegal for an employer to not pay employees full wage, I naively assumed this would be same in UK.

Blimey, is that right? I was sure you got paid. (Been a few years since I did it, but I got paid in full.)

[Watapalava]

It states this on the jury literature i got (and on their site)

"If you test positive, have COVID-19 symptoms or are self-isolating, do not come to our buildings. You should contact the court or tribunal to let them know and follow NHS advice."

Just ring them day before and say you went out for meal with friend and they have since tested positive

[palesunset]

Contact them again and cite childcare reasons. My mum got out of it for having to look after my dc that was a couple of years ago.

[LighthouseRoad]

@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.

Having just done a stint on jury service I completely agree with you.

[BearOfEasttown]

Also agree with @CrimsonImp