Jury service

You cannot claim childcare costs and lost wages newnanny I have checked for a family member and the maximum allowed is under £65 per day, bearing in mind that this could be halved if you are sent home. This person works continental shifts (3 from 7 and 12 hours per day so would end up with 3 x £64.50) . They have a mortgage and a family to provide for. I have wrote a letter and they have been fully excused.

When I did jury service the letter I received said I could defer (I didn’t) but you have to be careful because you have to let them know dates you won’t be available in the future because they’ll contact you again and you can’t defer a second time.

Yes my friend deferred as she was the carer for her gc and I was called up but wrote in that due to a medical condition I suffered from fatigue and would probably fall asleep. They et me off

Not only can one defer ,it is also possible to change the venue.
I owned a small flat in Cheshire as some years ago and I was called for Jury Service in that area.
I telephoned them and said that my actual home was 200 years ago and I was asked where and when I would like to do Jury Service.
Just give them a ring.

Actually my home was 200 miles away not years away!

As I've said before witnesses are not treated any better. The system is all wrong. Why should you be out of pocket for being a good citizen?

I agree with annepl, the whole system is wrong and needs looking at!

I don't see the point of 'bullying' reluctant or unavailable people into doing jury service t.b.h. (and yes I know not everyone is eventually picked) My mother really didn't want to do it but was picked. It terrified her. She was afraid of speaking up, afraid of the consequences of getting it wrong, caused her so much unnecessary stress which was quite separate from the money issue. She just didn't want to do it!

I have deferred jury service twice (for genuine reasons) I am now in a position I would like to volunteer but they don't take volunteers as far as I am aware anyway (not sure where Lancslass phoned)

I think it would be better to have a 'bank' of volunteers from all sectors, maybe an opt in/opt out choice? Obviously has to be varied but is it beneficial to have people who are either scared or who don't take it seriously?

I think volunteering would be quite wrong for jury service... just imagine some people being regularly on a jury!
?

I was called while I was caring for my sick husband. There was no problem in getting it deferred. Unfortunately, I am now too old to be called. I would like to have had the experience

I completely agree NotSpaghetti . I often think that some people have so may prejudices someone might be assumed "guilty" before they have even heard the case.

When I was called, I informed them that I was looking forward to attending, so that I could find the criminals guilty. I pointed out that I thought that far too many were being found not guilty, but that I would definitely find all of them guilty. They wouldn't be before the Court if they weren't. I was informed that I was not needed. I should state that this was only a few months before I was exempt through age. I expect that I could have got away with serving through my mobility disablement, but it was more fun the other way.

I did jury service twice and loved it. Wish you could volunteer for it - though could see why that would not work. Mind you some of the other jurors were very strange and I wouldn’t have wanted them responsible for my future!

Back in the 70's I worked in a council nursery which took children of working single parents in all day,the charge to them was minimal. One week we were told we had to accommodate a six week old baby and a two year old child as the mother ( not a single parent) was going on jury duty and had no childcare. This was particularly cruel for both the children and the mother. The two year old cried all day everyday and the baby was very hard to settle as they hadn't had that breaking in period where we took them for an hour or two to get used to being with strangers. The mother was distraught at having to leave her children. Serving on a jury should not cost anyone any money and should not upset children having to be left with strangers. There is so much faffing around in courts that the court case could be over in half the time. I'm so glad I'm now exempt through health reasons.

Vivian123 you reminded me of a friend who got her daughter to write a letter to say that her mother was looking forward to Jury service but she was worried about it as mother's memory was so bad. She got away with it. I actually enjoyed doing it once I got there.

I have recently done jury service for a second time and found it so interesting that I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it. Public sector staff do get paid but the senior nurse on our jury didn’t and had to claim through the court which was far short of he salary. My group was a good cross section of society and I didn’t hear anyone moaning about i5 being unfair. In fact generally folk seemed proud to have had the opportunity. We did get £5 day for lunch but had to pay for drinks in the court.

I did jury service and the judge asked if anyone felt they couldn't do it as it was expected to be a 3 week trial. Several jurors said it would be difficult to take that long off work and were excused.

When I did jury service I enjoyed it. Although there were a couple of young people, who had made friends with each other, male and female. They did not want to be left in the room to make a decision as we were only given sandwiches for lunch. So they just wanted to say Not Guilty without any discussion.

At the end of the week there were a number of older people who wanted to volunteer to do it regularly. They enjoyed the company so much

Hi NotSpaghetti yeah...I hadn't really thought this through. I wasn't meaning same people all the time I was more thinking of the fact it made my mum ill!!! So people shouldn't be forced to do it! But thinking about it if she had said so, then maybe she would have been excused? Ignore my post lol Not sure what the answer is t.b.h. I would actually like to have the opportunity now but when I was called I couldn't.

I don't actually think jury service is a good idea. No proof of capability to make a reasoned decision is required.

That would be a hard one to justify annepl. Who's to say who is capable. I did jury service last year. Not needed first day but then did rest of the 2 week block. Two self-employed people there and they lost a lot of money. There's a limited amount they can claim for. We got back travelling expenses and lunch allowance.

What if a number of those chosen can't follow what is happening and discuss it logically with other jurors?

l did Jury Service 20 years ago, I was called to the Old Bailey despite living in Middlesex (Surrey) one of the last to be called from that distance. It was an experience sitting in No1 Court for the Induction. Not called 1st day, however on 2nd day I was selected to go to the Royal Courts of Justice (High Court) on the Strand.

I sat on a Libel Case, Civil rather than Criminal Law. Very interesting & we were a complete mix of ages & occupations. I loved it . I would however ask for an exemption now due to health issues.

Not sure what your point is annepl, part of serving on a Jury is to discuss the case with other Jurors but not with any-one else

I think folks should be excused for whatever reason. Thinking it’s possible to just effectively “dump” young children on strangers beggars belief. And NO-ONE should be out of pocket at all.

My husband did jury service a couple of years ago. He was told the case could run for more than ten weeks. As a self-employed builder working entirely on his own, he would have had no business to come back to if he took an open-ended break of 10 plus weeks. He explained this to the relevant person at the court and they were really helpful. They put him on a case that was due to end in three weeks. It lasted about 2.5 weeks and he spent a lot of the time just waiting to be called and actually did very little jury service.