Can I ask to be excused from jury service on the day??

[Campari20]

Already deferred once.

Due to start in the new year.

Want to be excused owing to caring responsibilities and lack of childcare, my first reason for deferring was I had literally just started a new job.

Is it possible I can ask on the first day if I can be excused? I'm a single parent and have no outside help.

My brother deferred and the time he went he was in the middle of bar exams and was excused indefinitely, never got called back.

Is it possible I can ask on the day??

Can you call and find out. My friend did it as she works as a carer and it would be detrimental to her clients to deviate from their schedule as they had ASD.

I've contacted hm courts and tribunals but they said by law I can't defer again. I can either bring it forward or appeal. Don't have time to do either as literally starting first week of January.

A lot of bugs around. Just saying.

The first time I did it, I had deferred once and then on the rearranged date one of our dc was ill (nearly a hospital admission). I called the courts and they asked me to go for my second week but to let them know if i couldn’t. In the end I only served for one week and sat on one case.

That was nearly 20 years ago though so I don’t know if things have changed.

Why haven't you rang them already? You've left it until the last minute.

Sorry I missed your reply that you had spoken to them

There's not much more you can do really apart from see what they say on the day.

I’ve done jury service twice, the last time was just before Covid so forgive me if my knowledge is out of date. On the first day you’re put into a pool of people waiting to be assigned to a trial. Both times I served there were quite a lot of people who had childcare/caring responsibilities/ self employed therefore losing money who didn’t want to serve. You couldn’t ask to leave at that point, though.

When assigned to a trial, if you feel you have a case not to serve, you are then allowed to approach the judge and explain why, and the judge would decide if you could be excused. In almost all cases the judge would not allow them not to serve, and we were warned that you could be brought to court by the police if you did not show up! One woman on my trial didn’t turn up one day though, (she said the day before she wouldn’t be coming due to childcare) and the judge decided to continue with a jury of 10.
To be honest it did feel like one of the few situations I’ve been involved when it felt like there was no wriggle room at all - you just had to do your civic duty and no excuses.

When did they inform you? Was it not enough time to arrange for outside help? If not, I'd complain to them about that and see if can excuse you. They reimburse for childcare etc so not sure that it an excusable option

Legally, whether you appeal now or on the day, the answer is likely to be no you can't be excused. The rules on the web are quite clear that if your youngest child is over one, you would be expected to arrange childcare in order to serve.

How old is your child?

You need to arrange childcare, sorry. It might be you are not called or get a short case and are dismissed. How long ago was the date notified? Normally when you defer you nominate suitable alternatives.

What if you can’t afford childcare?

That is not the case. If somebody has no childcare and nobody to provide it, they can be excused. Although I'm not sure how that stacks if the op has a job and must therefore have childcare and has been excused already due to starting a new job. She should have written in advance to the court providing proof of circumstances.

A friend of mine's adult daughter was admitted to hospital the evening before my friend's jury service was due to start. Her daughter needed her - pregnancy loss at about 24 weeks. She explained the situation to the clerk and without having to produce any evidence, was immediately excused.

You can claim the cost of childcare as a reasonable expense.

There is leeway for exceptional circumstances, which applied in your friends case, but OPs is not exceptional. It’s a common struggle with jury duty, and if childcare was easily accepted as a reason to not serve, juries would be less fair as there would be less mothers serving - and therefore more men; and more childless people.

Unfortunately; jt was probably a bad idea to defer the first time - the new job should have understood - but leaving it this late and having already been told by the clerks that nothing else can be done, it’s unlikely that there will be a good outcome now.

They shouldn't expect a single parent to magic up childcare while holding down a job. I didn't have that support and my dc's wouldn't have coped with every night in after school club. I'm so glad I've never been asked to do it.

You're expected to find childcare. Is there no one at all?

I have got out of it quite a few times always just emailed wirh proof of reason why I can't. Am a single parent also

I'm in Scotland so it may be different. I had to ask to be excused as the week I was on the list was a week I had already taken off work due to a lack of childcare that week.

I was asked if I could arrange alternatives but I couldn't. So was excused. This was a while ago though.

I actually served on a jury a few weeks ago. And when I got the call to say I was going into the ballot I was told the length of time they expected to hear the trial and was asked if there was a reason I couldn't do it on these dates. I'm not sure what they would have deemed acceptable though as I could do the dates.

I will be doing my upmost to get out of it in the future though. I've been cited 4 times and served on a jury twice. I've done my civic duty. That last case really affected me. Not just the defendant but the lawyers. The general wasting of time - very much on the prosecution side, the legal system is a bit farcical.

From looking at the web, it seems that a lot of parents ARE excused from Jury duty because of no childcare. However on the government website it says you can be excused if "You are a new parent and will not be able to serve at another time in the next 12 months". There is nothing else I can find that says you WILL certainly be excused because of lack of childcare, so I wouldn't be 100% relying on it. I could be wrong, but it sounds more like usually there are more people than needed so if you claim that it would be more convenient for you to go and look after your kids, they'll usually let you go, but I can't see anything that says you will not have to do it, if say a lot of jurors were sick that day and they were short of people. I might not be the best person to ask though given I've never been called and probably would have to be excused on disability grounds if I was.

Turn up on the day with your child in tow ! Say you were let down on childcare that morning.

I'm exempt because l have MH problems and been in psychiatric hospitals and on medication.

Presumably OP will be doing this anyway since she has no childcare

Presumably you have childcare for work?

This isn't a very realistic rule. My child is older now but when she was young I wouldn't have had anyone to ask either. Everyone I knew was working themselves and almost no childcare providers offer short term places.