jury service but court is 26 miles away, dont drive

Georgiegirl256

pollyanna24 wrote: »

I didn't realise that you were just picked out at random to go anywhere. Surely it would make more sense to make sure people live close to the Court (or does this make it unfair as it won't represent a fair geographical blah blah)?
?

Well of course it's random. It wouldn't be fair in the slightest if they just picked people who live close to the court would it?

I live 37 miles away and I got picked. I actually quite enjoyed it!

lisa110rry

Any number of times chelsea...

Guest101

It's picked out of the local register.


You take unpaid leave, and get compensated by the courts.


Everyone should do their civic duty.

Takeaway_Addict

Lily-Rose wrote: »

I would ask if you can be given the court near you. If not, then defer.

Oh what a blasted nuisance this is! Obviously whoever is picking people, is someone who has no responsibilities (like kiddies/school run/looking after house and home,) and they can drive!

I can drive, but it would be hugely inconvenient, as we only have one car, and DH needs it for work half the time, so me having it for jury service 25 miles away would not be an option. And like you, it would take up 5 hours of my day just to get there and back if I went by public transport!

How ridiculous. You should just be able to say no.

But I would defer if I were you. My friend did about 7 years ago (she had 3 little 'uns under 11, and couldn't drive, and 2 kiddies were not at school yet!) Can they not check these things?!

Anyhoo, my friend, whose kiddies are all over 9 now, has still not been asked back! If you do defer, you may never be asked back!

The train fare is a LOT for just 26 miles BTW! Cities and large towns that are 20-30 miles away from us, only cost about £10 for the train fare.

Still, whatever, it's very inconvenient, so defer if you can.

Are you serious? Do you think they do it like looking through CV's???

Jagraf

what a privilege to get such an opportunity.

TBagpuss

LannieDuck wrote: »

I'm surprised so many people have deferred and not been called again. When I deferred, the form required me to give alternative dates that would be suitable and I was allocated one of those instead.

I relaised after I posted that I was thinking about people who were excused, not deferred. I would guess in some cases people have been excused even if they thought they were being defered, which might account for it!

kathrynha

TBagpuss wrote: »

I relaised after I posted that I was thinking about people who were excused, not deferred. I would guess in some cases people have been excused even if they thought they were being defered, which might account for it!

I was called up 7 years ago, asked to be excused, reply letter said I had been deferred. Not been called up since.

TBagpuss

pollyanna24 wrote: »

I didn't realise that you were just picked out at random to go anywhere. Surely it would make more sense to make sure people live close to the Court (or does this make it unfair as it won't represent a fair geographical blah blah)?

I've never been called (I'm 34). Can't decide if I want to be or not. Do I still get paid or do I have to take annual leave?

You are not picked to go anywhere, but your local court might not be the nearest to you. Juries are used in Crown Courts - they don't sit in MAgistrates courts or in the County Court (normally). So your nearest court which needs jurors may not be the nearest court to you.

Add to that, the selection process uses the electoral register. I don't know the exact mechanisms but I suspect that this means that selection will be linked to electoral constiuancies and districts rather than based on the distance from your home to the court, so depending on wher ethe borders are you might not be nearest to the court you are in the pool of jurors for.

(the other possibility is that it is based on post codes, in which case you may gain get anomolies - for instance, I know when a court is allocating civil cases they look at post codes, and there are a couple of villages around here which are closer to Town A than to Town B, but where they have Town B postcodes - and their cases get allocated to the court in town B unless they specifcally request otherwise.

For Jury service, I suspect that they don't have the mechanism to trasfer you from one pool to another - A friend of mine got called for jury service once - the notice arrived just before she was due to move house, so she contacted them to explain that, and asked whther she could do it at the court near to her new home rather than the old one, but they weren't able to do that, so they excused her instead (which she regretted, she would have been willing to do it had it not been for the move, but it would have been a 75 mile trip each way)

jackyann

I would call them and ask what they suggest. They are used to this, and can be helpful. Normally the rule would be that transport issues you describe would not excuse you, but the associated childcare issues might.
One of the problems about deferring is that it may be even less convenient next time!

Some years ago, the system of excusing / deferring changed. There used to be a long list of people like doctors, nurses etc who could ask to defer. Now they consider individual circumstances - and child care organisation is one.

It is rare to be completely excused: usually because of serious long term illness, or if one has already done a harrowing bit of jury duty.

busiscoming2

I was called up in about 1988 and couldn't do it as I had no one to care for my child. I haven't been called again - yet.