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?

FWIW I didn't get called until I was in my late forties. I'd love to be called again, I enjoyed the experience.

Why, our entire justice system hinges in this. Jury service is a massive inconvenience to 99% of people who have to do it, sometimes it’s emotionally traumatic, if people could just decide not to do it, can you imagine how unrepresentative juries should be. Non-compliance should therefore carry severe penalties

Why did they apologise for asking on this thread then?

With poor mental health?

I ignored not just my credit cards but also all my store cards, catalogues (as they were back then), overdraft, loan repayments and even my mortgage.

You may well be but unfortunately without an official diagnosis from a medical professional it will be very hard to do/not do things due to your autism.
For obvious reasons an official body (such as The Police, Courts etc) probably can’t just make allowances for you without a medical diagnosis on your records

How melodramatic. Jury days are less than 9-5, so shorter than the average working day, for 10 working days out if a whole year.

Having a job doesn't "literally take up" ones whole life and that's a bigger commitment.

How severe?

If someone is undergoing a mental health breakdown, should they be flogged in the streets for not attending? Jailed?

Interesting

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-49069826

Potential jurors are searching internet chat rooms for tips and "techniques" on how to avoid their public duty, a senior judge has revealed.
The problem was highlighted by Judge Andrew Menary QC, the Recorder of Liverpool.
He imposed a maximum £1,000 fine on a 70-year-old man who gave a string of excuses for not attending.
The judge said jurors "across the country" were "simply ignoring summonses or refusing to attend".
"I understand there are now web chat sites in which excuses and techniques for avoiding jury service are openly discussed," Judge Menary said.

Please don’t go straight to your GP with the current state of things. As on the website PP linked - phone or email them and explain your reasons as best you can (or get someone else to call on your behalf if needed). If they need something specific from your GP they can ask for proof of diagnosis / hospital letters / medication etc.
They may need a more detailed letter from your GP but a print out of your summary might be sufficient and would save you the delay and likely charge for a private letter.

This may have been a welfare check. If they wanted to issue an arrest warrant they would have asked OPs daughter to locate her and would have executed it either there or when she returned home, having been notified they were waiting.

Sorry if I’ve caused confusion I’m not the OP and I only posted as saw the thread and thought it would be a good place to ask bout my issue which was probably me misjudging. I didn’t mean to derail. Appreciate the advice I have had

OFGS. There are clear guidelines to exempt people who are ill/disabled.

Where people do something/don’t do something which affects the smooth running of society it is right this should be a criminal offence. At the moment this has a £1000 penalty (obviously this won’t be a deterrent to some if it didn’t also have a criminal conviction - otherwise it would enable people to buy themselves out of jury service).

And how do you go about getting a diagnosis when the NHS is fucked and on strike every other week?

It won't help society run smoother if we criminalise mentally ill people.

A few years ago,my best friend was summoned to Jury Service at The Old Bailey,a big murder trial. In the end it was cancelled. A couple of years on, I was summoned,it was quite a long way from home,an area I didn't know. We were both night nursing on an acute ward. . Before the medical field and essential service providers were exempt. I tried to get out of it, our Ward Manager did our shift patterns 3 months in advance. They werent interested. The ward manager refused to give me the time off!!! I assured her she could not do that. Then the dates were changed, I rang was told my name would be removed. A few years ago my youngest daughters best friend, with young kids and a 6 months old baby,who doesn't drive was summoned and couldn't get out of it. It must depend on the area, different ruling.

The trouble with that is that you end up with a self selecting jury of the sanctimonious, do gooders, the hang 'em brigade, unemployed or retired and the bulk of the midline working age population are left out.

Unfortunately jury service is not about convenience, it's about duty.

I was called some years ago but it was deferred as I was breast feeding but I did it later and there were loads of people who didn't want to be there usually for financial reasons or just because it was a pain .. but they did it

I hope you can sort it out OP but just deciding to take tehe risk and not show up was unwise.

DH is partially deaf. I was surprised they didn't want proof but they took his word for it and excused him.

My big worry would be getting a long case or one where I had to stay away from home. I'd do anything I could to get out of those.

I was called for jury duty once and my cpn contacted them to say I wasn't able to do it and they was fine with it but I would never dream of ignoring it and just not showing up. Its really serious

Yes the NHS is fucked. But that doesn’t stop the need to have these requirements around jury service, they are two different things.

jury service is not a next day thing. Although there are issues regarding getting GP’s appointments it is possible to get one within 2 weeks in the vast majority of cases. It’s usually possible to get a referral, this would probably have been enough for the OP. Saying the GP has referred them to mental health services - the issues round treatment are seperate from the issue at hand

I realise that having mental health issues can make live extremely difficult (been diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety, depression and ADHD over the years), there’s usually something that forces you to get a diagnosis - this should have been it for the OP if nothing else. It’s still necessary to be able to operate in society with MH issues, or create a system which enables you to do no harm to yourself or others. Her DH should have helped her handle this. Having MH issues is tough v tough. But you have to do things still.

Unless you have an official diagnosis, if you get called for jury duty you will have to do it. You can defer but you will have to do it after that.
If you don’t do it you can be fined a large amount and be in trouble with the police as it’s a criminal offence to not turn up.

If it came to it I’d pay a fine

My late husband had to decline jury duty for health reasons. They didn't ask for proof.

That’s well and good but as other PP have said, it’s not just the fine. It’s also a criminal offence otherwise anyone with some money would be able to just buy their way out. You would have a criminal record which would almost certainly affect other areas of your life now or in the future.

How do they know you'd even received the letter calling you up ? Had you responded to them at some point ?

Shocking that some people are encouraging OP to lie to get out of a problem they caused by their own lack of responsibility.