Jury duty, reasons to be excused
Discussion
Anybody know the grounds/excuses not to do it?
My daughter has just got an order for 2 weeks plus jury duty in July. She managed to defer it once before because she was working in Oz but this time they are insisting she goes.
She is a NHS doctor and despite a letter from her hospital saying she is needed and that there is no cover the Jury Service have turned down her request to be excused or defer again. She is a also in the TA and due to deploy to Afghanistan later this year so the hospital can ill aford to lose her for another 2 weeks plus.
She has a right of appeal but I was wondering what the convincing arguments would be?
I know we all have a civic duty etc but it seems nonesense to have the NHS pay locum rates (if they can even find a locum in her area) and her lose pay (she will have to take unpaid leave and accept the £55 a day for jury duty). Personally I think she is doing her bit going to Afghanistan and there must be many others willing and able to carry out this important job without them costing her and the NHS money. God forbid she ends up wih some protracted trial because that wll cut across her deployment training .
My daughter has just got an order for 2 weeks plus jury duty in July. She managed to defer it once before because she was working in Oz but this time they are insisting she goes.
She is a NHS doctor and despite a letter from her hospital saying she is needed and that there is no cover the Jury Service have turned down her request to be excused or defer again. She is a also in the TA and due to deploy to Afghanistan later this year so the hospital can ill aford to lose her for another 2 weeks plus.
She has a right of appeal but I was wondering what the convincing arguments would be?
I know we all have a civic duty etc but it seems nonesense to have the NHS pay locum rates (if they can even find a locum in her area) and her lose pay (she will have to take unpaid leave and accept the £55 a day for jury duty). Personally I think she is doing her bit going to Afghanistan and there must be many others willing and able to carry out this important job without them costing her and the NHS money. God forbid she ends up wih some protracted trial because that wll cut across her deployment training .
Turbodiesel1690 said:
Very interesting that you mention she's in the TA - I got off jury duty about 7 years ago as I was then in the TA, check the small print maybe its still a valid reason to be excused
If you were in the Armed Forces you used to be excused full stop but this has changed and is no longer the case.I managed to get out of it by claiming that my (small) firm would suffer unusual financial hardship and expenses (I was working in the US).
She'll need a letter from someone very senior in the hospital saying she has skills the hospital is under-resourced for and they cannot afford to let her spend time away without compromising patient care.
If that doesn't work she'll be doing it.
She'll need a letter from someone very senior in the hospital saying she has skills the hospital is under-resourced for and they cannot afford to let her spend time away without compromising patient care.
If that doesn't work she'll be doing it.
308mate said:
She's best off finding out what the case is about and then dressing or answering questions at selection in a way that will make the prosecution think there is a conflict of interests.
per my post above, it doesn't work like that, or at least it didn't when I did it, about 15 years ago.Google [bot] said:
308mate said:
She's best off finding out what the case is about and then dressing or answering questions at selection in a way that will make the prosecution think there is a conflict of interests.
per my post above, it doesn't work like that, or at least it didn't when I did it, about 15 years ago.You don't know about the trial before you get called from the jury room. A bunch of you go down to the court and they randomly select numbers that you have been given. The whole process was fasinating, but then, I got a murder trial rather than shoplifting. It's the one time in your life where you have to be more honest than ever before. Try and wriggle out of it by being inventive and I suspect you'd be in the poo quicker than you could flush.
silverthorn2151 said:
Google [bot] said:
308mate said:
She's best off finding out what the case is about and then dressing or answering questions at selection in a way that will make the prosecution think there is a conflict of interests.
per my post above, it doesn't work like that, or at least it didn't when I did it, about 15 years ago.You don't know about the trial before you get called from the jury room. A bunch of you go down to the court and they randomly select numbers that you have been given. The whole process was fasinating, but then, I got a murder trial rather than shoplifting. It's the one time in your life where you have to be more honest than ever before. Try and wriggle out of it by being inventive and I suspect you'd be in the poo quicker than you could flush.
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