Missed Jury Duty

[cherryberry90]

As the subject explains

Was out earlier shopping, and came home and eldest daughter mentioned that a couple of officers were at my flat, basically for a missed appearance at Jury Duty

Do not wanna make things any worse than what they are now, scary thought what to do next

Any advice that would be helpful?

I mean if there is a warrant, she is arrested and found guilty. Then yes OP now had a "criminal record" it would appear on a DBS.

But even then it states on the DBS what it was for, and;

Failure to Attend Jury Service (The criminal Justice Act 2003) on your DBS is pretty self explanatory, and dependant on the role you are applying for might not affect the job offer as long as you declared it.

I will do so yes, as know it is for the best whatever would happen*

Please don't panic. You are not going to get sent to jail or anything horrible.
Most likely a fine and a telling off. Just hand yourself into the nearest police station.
If they have a warrant for your arrest you will be kept in the station overnight and taken to court in the morning and it will be sorted for you.

So what would have happened if your daughter had no one? Does the court offer child care? This is nuts

Definitely should be more support available then, it’s shocking that there isn’t.

I just wondered how they stop bias, but I suppose you can’t really stop that. I can’t even watch tv dramas where children/babies die without crying my eyes out I would literally be useless in those kind of cases, I’d probably be sick. Very interesting though, I’d probably like to do other cases, I know it’s not how it works but it’s a shame you can’t choose. I have heard it’s a lot of sitting about though.

do they cover costs? Transport/childcare etc?

Thanks @MoscowMules I suddenly got very worried for the op just in case

But FWIW op I recognise and you say you suffer from mh issues, I hope some of the scary responses here don't set you back from calling 101. Just think of it as a task of today and tick it off when done. There's also been some good replies of advice for you. Don't put it off

I am someone who puts things off through fear/depression/anxiety and I get in my head, I'll do it tomorrow then tomorrow comes along with fear/anxiety so I give myself another day and before you know it it's been a week and 10x worse than it would've been
Hope you're okay x

I was supposed to be in jury duty this week but was excused as I’m a SAHM to a 10 month old baby who doesn’t attend nursery. This was after it being pushed back from last year when I was pregnant.
Obviously if you can make it work you’re expected to attend, but they don’t expect you to put your child into childcare just for two weeks in jury service.

You ask for an exemption.

Just call them and explain that you have mental health issues and that you dont understand their letter/ jury duty/ why the police are after you etc, as applicable.
I think physically turning up at the station will be a bit much for you. Just phone the number you've been given, I'm sure it will be ok OP

If a case is likely to be long or particularly distressing it is likely that the judge will enquire whether people are able to do it - ie if it will cause undue hardship or if people are not going to be able to cope. You can also make representations to the Clerk when you arrive. They don't want people having to leave in distress every 5 minutes.

To the OP I attended Jury Duty last year so have a sense of the feel of the place. More than half of the Jury Duty attendees were back up and we were sitting around the cafeteria for most of the time.

Yes while you have a legal obligation to attend it is NOT the end of the world if you did not. The UK system is reasonable and this is not Iran.

Send an email to the contact listed on the letter and/or call and explain the situation, apologise and they will tell you what you need to do to make amend.

There are far far more serious offences the government is worried about. Mumsnet tend to be full of folks playing think 100.00% by the book but the real world does not always work that way

A warrant out for your arrest lol fucking hell. You were better off just going to it

My partner has diagnosed autism and it never occurred to him to try to use it to get out of doing it, he was fine.

You know that not all autistic people are the same, surely @Shgytfgtf111 ?

None of the young autistic people I taught would be able to cope with jury service, for instance.

@Tekkentime no it’s not crazy because otherwise no one would do it and we wouldn’t have a criminal justice system

It's your wording @Fuzziefelt . I know what you mean. But it's not "don't want to" when the reason you don't want to is because "you couldn't cope with it and it would make you ill". That's how you have to word it.

If they don't accept it and say you have to do it, and the stress of it does make you ill then go to the GP ask for help, meds, counselling, whatever and ask for a letter from them saying you're too unwell at the moment. That gets it deferred, then if necessary you do the same again if the stress makes you ill again.

Also you don't need people to say about your childhood to get diagnosis it's possible without that, you're not the only person in that situation. And a GP can diagnose you, it doesn't have to be a psychiatrist. Gather the evidence, including personal information about all the things you can't do/struggles with life etc, book a double appointment with your GP and see if they'll give you a diagnosis.

If not being diagnosed is holding you back from receiving help you need in life then you should be diagnosed by the GP or referred to a specialist. It's not ok to be left struggling.

Good luck OP. When you speak to someone, don't be proud and say you just forgot. Be very honest about your mental health issues. There is a possibility that you will get a second summons with a new date, and if so you can answer the form and request a deferral. (But accept it might not be granted though.) Otherwise you may be looking at a fine. If that's financially tough for you, talk to the CAB, they may be able to help.

Pp's reply. @parent1709 worded much better than me
This is not the end of the world please don't panic x

And look, if we're living in a society that's more concerned about getting a juror legally in trouble or having spending police time wasted 'dealing' with a no-show when it should be a case of the show must go on
Seriously there's much better things for the police to be doing

Happy to be corrected

I think it's a shame there's no facility for people to volunteer for jury duty. I know someone who really wants to get a chance to serve on a jury, and they are in their early 40s, never been called. I suppose it would mean a risk of being top heavy in certain demographics though, like retired people.

Don’t panic. This happened to someone I knew . Including the police officers. Nothing came of it but you have to contact them.
Better to say you didn’t receive the letter though than to say you have undiagnosed autism though I think.

This.

Respectfully, since when could GP’s diagnose autism?
If that was the case, surely there would be families trying to fight the 2 year wait for assessment? 🤔

@LorW they cover expenses, upto a limit. Bus fares and some money for lunch, that sort of thing. They pay a wage substitute if you're working, but it's a standard amount and so it may not match your wage.

This is one reason why they can't let people off for no-shows with virtually no consequence, otherwise rich people earning £300/day or something would just pay the fine if it's cheaper than losing the wages. If all rich people did that, there wouldn't be a jury representative of society. Because society contains rich people as well as poor.

But surely if selection was truly fair and random, it could be possible that all 12 jurors could ALL be 47 and women or ALL 22 and men etc.

I agree - I think it’s a pretty archaic system and one which, considering how inclusive society is supposed to be, doesn’t think about the practicalities of different groups of society who might find doing jury service a real struggle…..emotionally, practically and financially.

@Verbena17 you are hopelessly optimistic - Adult Autism assessment in my area currently has a 4 year waiting list. That is once you are referred.

I personally know two people it's happened to. One, someone official wasn't taking a prior diagnosis (of autism) seriously so the GP wrote to say they'd re-assessed the person and they're definitely autistic. The other was struggling to hold down a job, needed special measures at work to enable that. Relatives recognised/suspected the person's autism, it was explained why to the GP who agreed and made the diagnosis.

Somewhere on Fuzziefelt medical records will be a referral for autism diagnostic screening and a record of their parents pulling them out of it part way through, there may even be a comment/ report from the doctor who did the screening that in their opinion Fuzziefelt meets diagnostic criteria so far but parents felt diagnosis wouldn't be helpful. If Fuzziefelt feels diagnosis would open doors to other help they need, such as being excused jury service on MH grounds, they should totally persue it.

Whether the GP would diagnose I guess depends on their level of knowledge of autism, some GPs have a special interest in MH and know more than most. Same way some GPs will only prescribe antidepressants for MH problems, referring to specialist services for anything more complex, whilst others will happily prescribe antipsychotics if necessary

You have a legal obligation to attend
It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to
But you can avoid it for certain reasons
for example
Medical..letter from doctor
Exams..I didn’t attend as I was called up during my A levels for example
Anything undiagnosed isn’t going to cut it as you need a doctors letter.