Jury Service, clinically vulnerable and Covid ~ thoughts please

sparkiemalarkie

My son lives with my husband and myself has just been called for Jury Service.
My husband is clinically vulnerable because of his age and medical condition.
We live in a very busy part of London with a high infection rate so we have all been shielding as a family since March 2020.
We have only left the house for local walks and the odd hospital appointment ~ everything we need is delivered.
My son is in a dilemma wondering if he should/could ask to defer  the Jury service.
There are so many reasons for and against asking for a deferral that we are now really muddled.
I was just looking for some fresh thoughts please
tia
sx 

Savvy_Sue

He certainly ask to defer. However, in normal times I believe you can only defer once. 

At what point is your DH likely to be vaccinated? I'd have thought after that the situation would be improved, no? 

izawa

You can defer. Mention all reason in the form online.

[Deleted User]

Defer, least that is an option? I currently go to work with latest billboards saying stay home. Act as if you have the virus. Aside from 3 months home working which was purely at the insistence of someone pregnant at time as it was there concern only to later find out they were OK travelling to an office when I wasn't around as OK, I have always attended a physical workplace at these times with no rest for the wicked. I risk my life to be surrounded in an office environment I would rather not be in twice over even with my fairly new employer knowing nothing of any medical conditions for myself. I have the ability to look after myself with a thousand pound saved up and can jack my new job in which just isn't working out and the stress of it so early on, not ever what I really wanted long term. Even my Dad, ahead of some mighty MSE warrier said I can understand why this new job isn't your forever job and that comes from a man who worked in the same industry for pretty much his work life. Thinking it through I don't suppose 3 months down line the new employer are going to say thanks really for not wasting our time when end of probation meeting comes about should I even have the next opportunity to be spoken with. I don't have the heart to be an underperforming employee or make it worse on myself - if life becomes uncomfortable it is my choice and I deal with the consequences. My point in short being if you've options open - use them. The person should do what is right for them.

sheramber

https://www.gov.uk/jury-service/delaying-or-being-excused-from-jury-service

Ask to change the date or be excused

If you cannot do jury service on the dates in your summons letter, you can ask to change the date or be excused.

Ask to change the date of your jury service

You might be able to change the date of your jury service to another date within the next 12 months. You’ll need a good reason, for example:

• a booked holiday
• an operation
• an exam
• your employer will not give you time off work

You can only ask to change the date once.

To change the date, reply to your jury summons giving your reason. When you reply you can suggest 3 possible dates in the next 12 months that work for you.

If you cannot do jury service because of coronavirus (COVID-19), you should ask to change the date.

Mickey666

Presumably the courts have made some changes for social distancing in these current Covid times but when I did jury service both the waiting room (in which you'll likely spend a lot of time) and the jury rooms were quite small and there was no way that 12 jurors could sit 2m apart from everyone else.

If I was living with a clinically vulnerable person then I'd refuse jury service and ask for a deferral.  If the situation was unchanged when I was next called up I'd just say the same again.  We're talking life-or-death here.

Presumably they wouldn't force a clinically vulnerable person to sit on a jury so why force someone living in the same household?

sparkiemalarkie

sheramber said:

https://www.gov.uk/jury-service/delaying-or-being-excused-from-jury-service

Ask to change the date or be excused

If you cannot do jury service on the dates in your summons letter, you can ask to change the date or be excused.

Ask to change the date of your jury service

You might be able to change the date of your jury service to another date within the next 12 months. You’ll need a good reason, for example:

• a booked holiday
• an operation
• an exam
• your employer will not give you time off work

You can only ask to change the date once.

To change the date, reply to your jury summons giving your reason. When you reply you can suggest 3 possible dates in the next 12 months that work for you.

If you cannot do jury service because of coronavirus (COVID-19), you should ask to change the date.

Ahh maybe we need to think about this a different way.
We have read the above info when the letter arrived but seeing it above gave me a fresh insight.
We've only been thinking about deferral and we've been racking our brains to think of some dates in the next 12 months that would be more suitable, but of course that's impossible to tell.
Instead of deferral maybe my son needs to ask to be excused since his living situation won't change and my husbands health won't improve over the next 12 months.
We could ponder on that over the weekend
sx

silvercar

Pick dates at least 3 weeks after your husband has had his 2nd vaccine.

jamesperrett

If you follow The Secret Barrister on Twitter you'll see that there is quite a bit of concern amongst the legal profession about how Covid secure the courts are at the moment. It doesn't sound like a good place to be if you are vulnerable to Covid.

unforeseen

Just to clarify, are we talking here about somebody clinically vulnerable I.E. moderate risk or EXTREMELY vulnerable (high risk)

The only advice for clinically vulnerable is social distancing. The person or whole family shielding is going to extremes.
There is no reason why the son can not carry on as normal, which includes jury service, , the same as a lot of households do with someday who is extremely vulnerable. I assume son still goes to work and leaves the house for other reasons. 
Personally, I am doubtful that a deferral because somebody in the family, or even the person themselves, is only clinically vulnerable would be considered reasonable. A deferral if the person themselves is extremely vulnerable is reasonable but not other members of the family. 

Mickey666

I take your point about someone living in a large family house and already going out to work everyday as normal.

I was thinking more about a retired couple both self-isolating because of their vulnerability.  If I was in that situation, I wouldn't be impressed by someone trying to categorise my level of vulnerability and since I would already be self-isolating with my partner I would not want to risk jury service - indeed that would be my basis for refusal until the pandemic restrictions are lifted.

That may or may not be strictly legal, but can you really imagine the courts forcing a vulnerable person to sit on a jury, or to find them in contempt of court for trying to protect their own life and that of their partner?  I'm sure there must be a human rights case in there somewhere not to mention the media having a field day!  There have already been umpteen cases of over-zealous police being slapped down for getting a little bit, shall we say, 'power-mad' during lockdown so I doubt the courts would want to be similarly accused of heavy handedness.  Just imagine the outcry if a vulnerable juror or their partner contracted the virus and died!

My bet is that, a polite and reasoned request for deferment on the grounds of clinical vulnerability would be accepted by the courts without making any fuss.