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.

(that's the turnover, not the nosy cow bit!)

The Jury duty rules in New York used to be a nightmare. Dozens of professions had gotten themselves exempted through bribery lobbying of the state legislature. Think all medical professionals, lawyers, sales people, etc. So the same people, mostly housewives and pensioners, wound up serving over and over again.

They did a complete reform of the rules about ten years ago. Now there are no professional exemptions and you can't be called more than once every four years. There are exemptions for parents of young children who can't make other arrangements for care, and for medical reasons. I got out of a jury duty call recently because I'm scheduled for orthopedic surgery. I just had to provide a letter from the surgeon.

I did serve once on a grand jury and that actually was quite interesting.

As an English qualified lawyer living in Scotland I would have been allowed to do jury service in England but am effectively excluded in Scotland by just telling the person in charge that I'm an English Solicitor. Despite the fact I did the bare minimum criminal procedure required to qualify and that English and Scottish court procedure and evidence rules are different enough I'd have to requalify and pass an exam in those topics to work in Scotland. Bizarre split between jurisdictions there!

You can claim for your additional childcare no problem, they will pay it in full even if you don’t end up having to do the full 2 weeks.
I just finished jury duty a couple of months ago and found i actually ended up getting a couple of days entirely to myself, paid for by the court, which was just wonderful!

Jesus Christ some of the comments on here. You obviously know bugger all about farming.

Go and watch clarksons farm and understand what it takes to keep a 1000 acre farm
Going and then try and understand how much harder it is to do 4000 acres and how little money there is.

GOod luck OP.

I have got my husband out of jury service twice when the kids were young. He was self employed and we had a lot of debts. I sent in a big list of our outgoings and what he would miss out on by not working and once they saw it would make us in debt they let him off. You could try writing a letter

Exactly, I grew up on a diddly farm, piss all money, worked our arses off every summer...

4000 acres, ye gods. Yep, let's get some random person to drive the combine harvester that cost more than your house...it'll be fine!

It will be like a military operation, no slack, no cover as everyone else is also busy at this time of year.

My dad got called in 2003 and was stuck on a case for 8 months. If I was you I’d be very careful about just turning up on the day and hoping for the best…

Hi OP
Be careful when trying to claim back childcare. It is capped per day and went nowhere near the daily charge of a private nursery where I live. I found it was more designed to cover expenses incurred by informal childcare arrangements tbh. FWIW I got out of jury duty because I couldn't get childcare for my DS - I had to prove this - I had emails from regular nursery provider that they didn't have the space to accommodate for a 2 week period

@IWantT0BreakFree

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.

This

I'm a bit miffed about having to put her in that setting to be honest because it wasn't what I'd planned this early with my normal working pattern.

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

YANBU to ask if you can be excused, but I agree with pp you are sounding increasingly like you're moaning to an audience now OP.

Your OP was about the childcare cost, which posters have advised you on now and you go on to moan about being miffed about childcare settings and then later moan about wearing a mask! Unless you're exempt, wearing a mask is not that difficult, lots of people wear one to work every day.

@Juststopasking

4,000 acres. What’s the farms annual turnover?

Bloody nosy cow.

Precisely!

Well Id say it would be worth appealling, and explaining your partner is a farmer and has that responsibility. I have convictions for anti-nuclear activities so I wonder if they wd ever ask me.

What I would say is i) someone has to do it, it's civic duty ii) but your reasons seem fairly compelling iii) I have heard of rape survivors who have had to stand up in open court with no anonymity to say I am a rape survivor and I can't do this rape /violence case because that kind of detail is not good for my health. I am not suggesting this is ever used as an excuse but thank your lucky stars if you are not. Also I had a tenant who did it, hers was a very very serious case, she wasnt allowed to talk about it (during Jury duty) and with my own fragile psychological health, we didnt discuss it again. IF you do have to do do it then you are doing everyone a public service. If you were anywhere near where I live I am a Granny and would offer to do some child care. Might they fancy a week at the sea with a funny not very old lady! :)

@junebirthdaygirl

When you arrive there you may not be selected. Lots arrive and many have to leave as they are not needed. Also the case you are chosen for may be settled quickly so things may not be as bad as you fear.

I was on jury Duty a couple of months ago, and this situation was the worst - I still had to pay for childcare even though I didn't need it and there was a stipulation on the claim form that you had to be in court over a certain amount of hours before you could claim a certain amount of expenses back (I'm appealing this because I had to pay for 6 weeks full time childcare, even though I wasn't in court for 6 full weeks - I'm a stay at home parent purely because the cost of childcare is more than my wage, so I'll be fuming if this isn't reimbursed).

Plus there's the issue of paying for childcare up front and not being able to claim back until you're dismissed, which not everyone will be able to afford.

I got called for jury service over 15 years ago , it would have been very difficult with my childcare situation but my real problem was that this is one of my biggest worries and i feel very strongly that you should have a choice as to whether you do it or not .
So i exaggerated the situation with my childcare and was excused.
So far i have not been recalled .

@RealhousewifeofStoke you display a very deep ignorance of how farms work. Your post is rude.

You can claim childcare costs for a professional mileage to drop them off not sure if it's specific to certain areas but I was also able to claim £2.50 per hour if it was a family member or friend looking after my child.

First opportunity you get on the day ask loudly what Jury Nullification is. They won’t let you anywhere near being selected for a trial after you ask that question.

I’m a single parent. No dad around and I just said I couldn’t get childcare and didn’t have to do it. It would have been impossible for me though as I have no family to help either.

You can 100% claim childcare. I run a nursery and have just paid a too up for a staff member who had additional care for her kids whilst she attended jury service. Also, if your youngest isn’t in childcare you can ask your nearest busy bees nursery (or potentially any other chain nursery) to provide emergency childcare and they will give the details of how to access this to you, you won’t be subject to the same nursery contracts under this method. Good luck:

This is so annoying! I’d love to do jury service and have never been called. I wish I could take your place, OP.

Too busy laughing at Real Housewife of Stoke. Absolutely no idea. Astonishing.

I wish counselling had been on offer after the 6 week murder trial I sat on.....
As excited as I was to be selected I was elated when it was over! We were all excused for 10 years after that.
But I didn't have small children to contend with.
Definitely appeal to them again if childcare is an issue (although I'm sure your MIL will manage with your dc the same as she did when hers were little if she's a farmers wife?)

@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 was called 10 years ago, but had a hospital admission for surgery 3 days after they wanted me, so it was deferred. I've never been asked again, and they've only got another 10 years to ask and then I'll be too old!

I was the fourth member of our team of 10 to be called for jury service in just over a year. One of them was on a case that lasted 8 weeks. Eight years later, one of them was called for a second time, and I still wasn't called back.

I'd really like to do it, so I hope they get round to asking me again soon. The only downside for me is that although the county court sits in town, 1.5 miles from my house, they always seem to send people to a court centre 10 miles away.

I would love to do jury service and have never been called. Even years ago when my children were small I would have loved it but I did have a good support network so childcare wouldn’t have been a problem.