Jury Service

[kasavien]

Hi all

I got a summons for jury duty to start at the beginning of september, it was a bit of a surprise but i'm more than happy to do it. The problem is i am currently on a year out from university on work placement, and i have just been told that i will have to finish work before the jury duty starts, which means i will lose earnings, but i can't claim loss of earnings unless i am employed.

Does anyone know what i can do under these circumstances, because i don't want to lose money if i possibly can as i am going back to university in october and would like to save up as much as possible.

Thanks

Andy

[GoNz0]

ring them up and explain your going to lose your job over it, the employer can't force you out the job to start jury service, its against the law.

also tell them you are bias against the legal system and would not be on the side of the law regardless due to personal experience

should tell you not to bother after that !

[mark19632]

I think you can defer it once if it causes you a probblem as a guy here did that in the past.

[kalniel]

You can defer once - they'll give you a new summons almost straight away. By that time you'll be a student and can exempt yourself. (Unless you currently count as a student, in which case you just say so and they excempt you anyway).

[kasavien]

i wish i knew all this before i sent the forms off saying that i can do jury service, i didn't realise that being a student would exempt me from jury service. Is there anyway to ask for exemption after the forms have been sent off? i wouldn't even mind being defered, i would actually like to do jury service, its just the timings not too good.

Have i royally messed things up now i've sent the forms off?

[chicken]

You need to chase up your forms with a phonecall. Tell the person on the phone exactly what you've said here and they should be able to help you. It's a call for you to do a public service to help out the country, not a sentence, so I'm sure they will be quite accommodating if you explain you're willing to do it but another time.

[kalniel]

Oh it's no problem at all. As soon as you say you're a student they'll drop you very quickly Even if you say you'll do it another time you just go back into the general pool as soon as you're not a student and you may not hear from them again. (I was in a similar situation - I deferred once, then let them know I was a student, over the phone I think, and they sent me a letter saying I was excempt and I've not heard from them since).

[GoNz0]

the only advantage to having a criminal record

they will never ask me

[kasavien]

phew sounds like i have hope i'll give them a phone call as soon as possible, thanks for all the help, i can de-stress now

[TheAnimus]

yes easyest way of doing it:

"hello, i'm ment to be doing jury dutey, yes, is the defendent a <any racail slur> because we all know what must be done with those."

[kasavien]

I'm not racist and i won't even pretend to be, and anyway as i said above i'd like to do it, but its not financially good for me. Going to give them a call today anyway to see if i can get it deferred.

[kasavien]

Ah well as it turns out being a student doesn't help, because the trial is three weeks before i start uni, i'll have to get onto my employers so that i can stay in work, they don't even have to pay me i only need them to stamp a certificate so i can claim loss of earnings, grr when did my life become complicated

[GoNz0]

ring em back, say you have friends who have been through the legal system and are bias against the system