Jury duty expenses - crippling!

[Budapest99]

Hi there,
Ive been called up for Jury Duty which Im super excited about & really want to do it. However on completing the forms, Ive realised the court will pay a max of £65 per day for loss of earnings & childcare costs combined. My company will deduct the £65 per day from my salary leaving me no money for childcare. I have 2 kids at nursery costing £70 each Mon & Tues so I will need to add Wed to Fri as extra, costing me £840!!!! (£70 per kid for 6 extra days). I would have thought I would be paid the £65 reimbursable for loss of earnings & EXTRA money for childcare. I will need to try & excuse myself as I cannot afford it. What do you think? x

What on earth are you talking about? This bears no resemblance to what happens in England and Wales. Do you know what jurisdiction you think you’re talking about? US perhaps?

I object to doing it at all, it's not something I've signed up to do. I'd conveniently chuck the papers in the bin, they can't prove whether or not it's arrived and if I don't know, I can't go. Fuck that for a lark.

I can only imagine the total clusterf**k that this would create with universal credit. Reduced hours at work, allowance paid from elsewhere, unusual childcare bills 😫

I dread the day I ever get called up to do it. I don’t see why it should be anyone’s civic duty to have to do something potentially very distressing.
I get that some people find the prospect exciting but I also don’t see the point of a jury. What do random people off the street bring to the table?

This happened to a friend who was a stay at home dad, they couldn’t afford (or find!) to pay for childcare up front, it also wouldn’t be in the best interests of their children. So he just took their baby and toddler on his first day and asked where the nursery was.

I got called, but was recused because I was safeguarding lead in a residential special school which had major staffing issues. Had a letter from the head saying that staffing was critical, they couldn't"t get cover and the school would have to close if they didn't recuse me. (This was true.)
This was 20 years ago and I still haven"t been asked again. I don't know if it is because I have moved to the opposite end of the country, because my surname has changed since then, or if they assumed am still in the same job.

asked anyone who thought they might be excused to write it down on a piece of paper. About 6/7 people did and he read through them aloud in the courtroom- he refused every single one of them

”I may not be a suitable juror. I am aware of the legal precedent that jurors may not suffer any punishment for basing their verdict upon their conscience. I see the best in everyone and my conscience requires a very high bar to find one of my peers guilty as I have a genuine fear of falsely finding someone to be guilty.”

I think you can get a Drs letter for exemption unless that’s changed now. My mother years ago didn’t have to attend on account of her nerves.

I have done it twice, lots of sitting around, usually shorter hours than a working day and only one 3 days case second time. I was working both times, first time the daily allowances for food and travel were so generous (35 years ago) that I had money left over, second time my employers did take a while with paperwork etc to sort out paying any difference.

We were told on the first day that there was going to be a case that lasted months, a complex fraud case I think, we had to fill in another form - you could give reasons why you couldn’t do that one. I managed to find one …. There is no guarantee you will just do two weeks, equally you could do no case at all.

I was called up again for Jan this year, cancelled things (pottery class etc.) or didn’t book things - one week before I had a phone call saying they had more than enough numbers and they didn’t need me.

It can be interesting, but also very frustrating leading to time wasting and bad decision making! Being locked in a room having to get a majority of 10 when it couldn’t be anything other than guilty, for the sake of conspiracy theorists and people who just think they are being clever or others that don’t seem to have been in the same court ….. I wasn’t looking forward to that side again.

happened in Ireland called for jury duty recently. 1st panel to be picked was a sex grooming case - defence solicitor was female. both sides allowed to refuse 7 each. she refused nearly every female especially young ones. jury ended up being 10 males and 2 females. trying to find the outcome of it

It's your duty to do everything in your power to be there - otherwise mums of young children aren't represented. Ask your partner to take leave. It's a really serious job, and while it may be a pain in the arse, people like you are badly needed on juries so please do everything in your power to be there. As for the person who said no because they don't like public transport. I despair.

@JournalistEmily, but what if you don’t have childcare? What about those who are self-employed and only just managing in this cost of living crisis? The daily rate is too low to make up their salary so do they default on their mortgage or rent? Not pay their utility bill that month? It’s unfair that so many of us would need to use their hard earned savings to prop up their income if called up.

Until the policy changes to one where people aren’t being asked to pay for the privilege of being a juror-as that’s what’s happening now-then you will regularly have large numbers of the public trying everything to get out of it. It should not cost the public money to do their civic duty.

If it's such a 'hideous imposition' and everyone should use the slightest excuse to get out of it then you will be left without a cross section of society to judge trials and then you really would have something to moan about!

If it's the duty of people to do "everything" in their power to attend jury duty then the state should compensate people entirely for any loss of earnings or additional costs instead of the half-arsed scheme that is currently in place.

But they don't, so yet again certain demographics, usually working mothers have to find a way to fill the gap in a totally discriminatory fashion.

Just as an aside, it’s ironic that criminal barristers often work for less than £65 a day, so they’d be doing ok if called for jury duty! That’s mainly in response to PaperRhino and their cringingly ignorant view that criminal solicitors and barristers are pompous and overpaid.

That’s not to say the allowance shouldn’t be more than £65. But it’s unrealistic to expect it in such an underfunded system.

Most of them work for a private firm too.

It's a pathetic amount of. The trouble is people in a similar situation to op will not be represented on a jury. That isn't right.
I had a similar situation when I had one child who would need before & after school care plus another 9 month old . I just couldn't afford it.

Who does?

@carerneedshelp....the update I promised....I received an email response today from hm courts and tribunals, and thankfully I've been excused. It only took 4 days for a response

They seem to manage just fine, with paid, trained judges in other countries,

People don't owe the state anything, and they definitely shouldn't be financially out of pocket.

Getting rid of the jury system is long overdue in my view.

There are plenty of lawyers out there who are female and have small children. Some of them can become judges/magistrates and then we don't need jurors in the same demographic,

I don’t really want a cross section of society on a jury if I’m in the dock. There are a lot of idiots out there. I would be quite happy if it were mostly retirees and smart people of independent means.

My dh was called up a few years ago. All was OK, employer paid him in full and he got expenses. However, it was just the 2 weeks. If its a big case then it can go on for weeks/months. My MIL was requested 2yr ago but stated she wasn't able to carry this out due to medical, MH, and travel issues. She received a call saying although these aren't reasons taken in to account, she would be exempt this time due to the participation numbers being high.

I think, in some ways it should be a sign up responsibility to 0participate in.

I would like to do it but I'm a full time carer for my daughter and we now live 30 miles away from court (I dont drive & if I could I wouldn't drive in to the city) but they are still not classed as good enough reasons to not partake.

Definitely would not do it.

And don't beat yourself up, most of it is dull as mud, I'm certainly never doing it again!

You may not have the choice.