Jury service and sahm

[0lgaDaPolga]

I’ve just been called for jury service. I’m a sahm to my 14 month old. I have no childcare for him, no family nearby. I’ve only ever left him with my mum before and that was for about half an hour! He wouldn’t be happy being left with someone new all day for 2 weeks. Does anyone know if I will be excused on these grounds?

Have you contacted them to ask.

Hi OP. I did jury service last year. There were several SAHMs there and also WOHMs who work part-time or around family childcare, and who unfortunately had to make new arrangements for their children as they were needed in court Mon-Fri 9-5, and they weren't excused. It was a pain for them - they were given an allowance so it wasn't so much the cost as the hassle of making arrangements just for a two week period. Some flexibility was shown e.g. on my jury there was a lady who needed to pick up her kids from school so the court didn't sit later than 3.30 and we frequently finished earlier...

I think you will probably be able to ask for a deferral of 6 months if you can show you can't get childcare but you probably won't be excused entirely. Would your mum look after him if she got some money to do so? You ought to have some time to get him used to being with her and you may find he gets used to you leaving him quite quickly...sympathies though, it is a pain.

I was able to decline to do it when mine was 6 months old, but I was breastfeeding so they would have had to have an extra jury member! Not sure you’ll get away with it at 14 months - people who are self employed etc are probably a lot more inconvenienced than simply having to sort out childcare and they don’t automatically get out of it.

Not automatically excused, no.

You'll need to write and request being excused, but lack of childcare (or childcare you don't want to use) isn't listed as one of the main exemptions.

Check out the gov.uk website for the accurate answer.

My mum wouldn’t be able to look after him, she lives 6 hours away so only visits occasionally. I’ll fill in the form and see if we can defer. I gave up working so I wouldn’t need to put him in childcare and I really wouldn’t want to leave him with someone he doesn’t know.

They are usually very helpful when you phone them, give that a try and you might get a referral.

I had the same situation, just explained I didn't have childcare. They excused me.

In case anyone is interested I ended up being excused as I have no childcare and would have struggled to get there as I’m also pregnant. Quite a relief to not have to sort out childcare!