To not understand what they expect me to do?

[bloodypublicservice]

I was called up for jury service starting in less than two weeks from now. I work Saturdays only as I otherwise do all of the childcare whilst my partner works full time. Originally I stated I was available as my MIL was going to have our daughter, however MIL has experienced a significant and unexpected health issue resulting in being hospitalised for the foreseeable. I've contacted the relevant department to have received a response stating that my request to be excused from this call for service has been refused and that I must still attend at the stated day/time. It mentions appealing but that a hearing is likely to be called, and given the start date is so soon, it's realistically not going to be resolved before starting.

WIBU to show up on my start date with my child and ask what else they expected me to do? We have no other local family and no provision for external childcare.

I think you need to ask to defer not be excused, you would have to do it sometime in the next 6 months I think. You need a really good reason to be excused (I don't think child care problems would be sufficient), not so much to defer and I expect a temporary problem with childcare would be OK. My DH deferred because of work commitments and did it a few months later.

Childcare starts at £75 a day near me. That's the cheaper end. So the choice of spending £750+ or losing husbands wages for length of trial would literally mean we couldn't pay our mortgage or other bills. Pointing out that when you have a small child you provide the care for you can't reasonably do jury service isn't "trying to get out of something". There are people in this thread acting as if the country would fall apart without it. I am very menopausal and would be terrible on a jury at the moment!! It should be much easier to defer.

Move to Scotland! It's such a small population that we get called all the time (at least where I live)!

The relative crime rate must be higher (or relative need for a jury I suppose), otherwise a smaller population would also mean lower number of crimes.

It's 12 months (just looked it up). You can give 3 dates within the next 12 months. That seems reasonable.

Where do you think she'll find one with space for this?

This is so shite... from so many angles.

DP's employer should permit emergency parental leave/compassionate leave, though this may be without pay.

Courts should have a better system for childcare than 'you sort it out or else'.

But also, if women don't, or won't do jury service, we end up with juries that are not a good cross section of society.

Add in all those people who won't go because of their job, and you further narrow that cross section to those who don't work for whatever reason, and don't have kids.

Theres already far fewer jurors with disabilities because most courts are in NO way accessible for disabled people...

A jury is really not a group of ones peers if all these people are excluded from jury duty!

Giving staff time off for jury service

Is your husband aware of his rights?

No wonder the country's in the state it's in....with people like you not able to comprehend the OP's original post before spouting their judgemental opinions.

In Scotland the jury in Criminal trials is made up of 15 people compared to 12 in England which would be a contributing factor I guess

Those rights do not extend to spouses.

It is still unpaid. Although I'm retired, I am involved in several different voluntary activities, many retired people have caring roles - elderly parents who would cope without a visit but would find it distressing, or caring for GC, meaning that alternative childcare needs to be found, but unlikely to be compensated for because it's not the juror's own children requiring care. My time is valuable to me, the more so because I have so little left. But I am expected to give up 3 weeks or more with no recompense, and to travel for over an hour each way on unreliable public transport during rush hour, which I would find physically extremely difficult as I find it difficult to stand for any length of time. At least payment at minimum wage would allow me to take a taxi.

Employers have to give you time off for jury service but they certainly don’t have to pay you for it.
The £64.95 loss of earnings payment is ludicrous and if, like me, you run your own business the timeout of being able to do so is even more financially crippling.
The £5.71 lunch allowance doesn’t even cover a lunch from the courts own cafe, let alone meal deal.
But yes, it’s our civic duty and an important one at that. The demographic of the juries, when I did service last month, already seemed skewed very much toward people my age (52) and older, and far more women than men. Hardly any young people at all. I imagine that there had been a lot of deferring or excusing, for reasons the OP has stated. Something needs to be done to overhaul the system if it is to remain fit for purpose.

But what do you actually expect her to do with the child?

The husband wasn't the one called for jury service.

Just hand her baby over to the homeless man sitting outside the court.

This is absolute nonsense. You clearly have no idea how jury selection works.

Companies cannot require you to take jury duty as annual leave.

Don't ever be forced into that.

exactly, why are people trying to make things harder than they need to be.

The suggestion was the OP's partner books two weeks annual leave to cover the OP being at J.S.

It seems so unfortunate that they ask so many people (repeatedly) who can't do it because of childcare when I've never been asked and could easily get the time off work and do not have childcare issues. Shame you can't put your name on a list to volunteer to do it and get pre-vetted, then once you've done it twice you are automatically ineligible.

It's not the husband that's been called for jury service

At least read the OP before making snotty, judgmental comments. OP had less than two weeks notice.

That’s not what’s happening here. OP is a SAHM. The suggestion was that her DH take leave from work to provide child care.

1. A partner should not be taking unpaid leave to enable a SAHM to do jury duty. What if the trial lasts for 6 weeks? Or longer?
2. A partner should not be using up their annual leave to enable a SAHM to do jury duty.
3. OP should not be obligated to leave her little one with a random.

Ask what provision they have for breastfeeding mothers as you'll need to bring your 14 month with you as your only alter active childcare is in the hospital. See if they can offer to defer in that instance.