8 weeks Jury Service

pKaTz

I have Jury service next week and have received a letter stating that I could potentially be in a trial for 8 weeks.

There was a form attached to complete if you can not do the 8 weeks, ie, due to medical appointments, work, holidays etc.

I can not stay for so long, as I will be loosing money due to my employer not covering my salary.

I get paid a basic and commission, 2 weeks I could cope with, but I will definitely be worse off after 2 months.

What can I put as a valid reason not to be selected for a possible 8 week trial?

BobQ

The following is what the decision maker will have in mind if you apply to be excused.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/228867/9780108508400.pdf

Whether you get commission is irrelevant if you will not be paid. You have to show that you or your family will suffer hardship due to loss of income.

You need to make the case that loss of (basic+ typical commission) less whatever they will pay you creates hardship.

TELLIT01

Can you volunteer for jury service? I'd love to get away from my work for 8 weeks but do appreciate it's not the same for everybody.

mum2one

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Can you volunteer for jury service? I'd love to get away from my work for 8 weeks but do appreciate it's not the same for everybody.

you get picked for it. some of the time your sat around waiting x

Aquamania

pKaTz wrote: »

I have Jury service next week and have received a letter stating that I could potentially be in a trial for 8 weeks.

There was a form attached to complete if you can not do the 8 weeks, ie, due to medical appointments, work, holidays etc.

I can not stay for so long, as I will be loosing money due to my employer not covering my salary.

I get paid a basic and commission, 2 weeks I could cope with, but I will definitely be worse off after 2 months.

What can I put as a valid reason not to be selected for a possible 8 week trial?

I have highlighted the reasons you could put.

Jury service is normally up to 10 working days - you might even get told to go home on day 1 and not come back as you are not required. Or perhaps they will put you on 1 or more small trails up to 10 working days.

It is accepted that serving any longer than 10 working days can be an issue, so that is why people are asked.

What is surprising is that, unless it is a very small courthouse, (like Barnstable or Kings Lynn) in which case it's unlikely a trial would last 8 weeks there, that you have been asked in advance.

What normally happens is that many people are called for jury service. You all go into a room and get called at random to the various trials that are taking place. (names out of a hat type thing) It's not unusual for a court house to have 4 or more courts. Somewhere like London Central Criminal Court, (you may know it better as the Old Bailey) has 22, Cardiff has 10, Bristol & Hull have 11 each, Newcastle has 15, etc, etc.

Maybe your court has adopted a slightly different procedure, but usually you only get asked if there are any issues with being a juror on a trial likely to last in excess of 10 working days, once you have been selected to sit on that particular trial.

One advantage of sitting on a long trial is that the judge at the end often excuses you from jury service again for a much longer period than the norm, which is usually 5 years.

Aquamania

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Can you volunteer for jury service? ...

No. You get called for jury service and even then you may not even sit on a single trial which can be as little as a few hours or less. (See my post above)

Even if you get selected for a particular trial, there can also sometimes be objections raised to you sitting on that particular trial, and if upheld, you will be removed before the trail even gets going.

Another issue with such a long trail is that any juror could fall ill during that period. If for any reason you do fall ill and cannot continue, or your illness is causing you to not properly concentrate or otherwise interupts the court (even developing a bad cough could do this) you will not be allowed any further participation in that trial as you obviously need to hear the whole trail. Ultimately that could lead to the requirement for a complete re-trial (but if only 1 or 2 jurors are affected, then the judge usually allows the trial to progress with the reduced number of jurors)

If you do get called, you can probably wangle at least one day off work though

Voyager2002

I understood that the court would pay your salary (whatever it normally is) during the period that you are unable to work because of jury service. If that is the case, there is no issue for you: do check.

agrinnall

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I understood that the court would pay your salary (whatever it normally is) during the period that you are unable to work because of jury service. If that is the case, there is no issue for you: do check.

You understood wrong, loss of earning claims are capped.

https://www.gov.uk/jury-service/what-you-can-claim

Marktheshark

Turn up with this on, see if you get picked....:rotfl:

DKLS

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I understood that the court would pay your salary (whatever it normally is) during the period that you are unable to work because of jury service. If that is the case, there is no issue for you: do check.

Sadly not, hence why Jury service isn't popular with contractors, If your on £500 a day +, being compensated £65 a day is going to sting.

Civic duty comes at quite a price for some.

kizkiz

I had this situation when i did jury service some years ago.
A large number of us were called into the court room and told it would be a 10 week trial.
The judge asked that anyone called forward approach the bench if they had a valid reason, or simply did not want to do such a long trial.
He let those who had a weak excuse stand to the side and filled the jury with enough willing participants. If not enough, then those would have to have done the service
It seemed sensible to me, but I suspect is not standard practice