Deferring jury duty for a second time

[Unexpected Item In Bagging Area]

I was called up to start jury duty back in July but deferred it as there was a risk of it running into our wedding, and I've since been called to do it in October. I was perfectly happy to do this however in the last week two out of the six employees at the company I work for have handed in their notice which leaves us in a very tricky situation. We can kind of cover one of their jobs but not both, and it's always a struggle to find suitable employees for the roles.

The government website is of little use so I guess it's time to write to HM with a supporting letter from my boss. Is it possible to defer a second time?

[Sunnyone]

I have deferred twice in about two years, both due to work commitments. This is in Scotland if that makes a difference.

[juggsy]

One of the guys in my team had to defer twice due to workload and commitments at work. First time explanations were given verbally, however the second time HR wrote a letter which he had to present to the judge presiding over the case. However second deferment was granted provided they agreed to a new date.

[PorkInsider]

I did jury service last year and I'm almost sure I received some info regarding circumstances where deferment would be allowed due to business issues.

I seem to recall words to the effect that it's usually restricted to situations where it's a self-employed person or small company which would suffer hardship without the summoned person.

ETA: this is from the jury summoning officers' guidance document:

guidance doc said:

Jurors may be excused for valid business reasons. Applications of this type
should, however, be looked at closely and granted only if there would be unusual
hardship. A small business is an example of a case where such hardship might
be suffered, although each case must be considered on its individual merits.

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

Edited by PorkInsider on Tuesday 6th September 08:54

[Foliage]

You should be fine deferring, my experience differs in that I did jury service and the admin team at the court were actively trying to not have people on jury service who they had to pay, on a number of occasions the 'random' selection was obviously not random as people who had jobs were excluded.

So I wouldn't worry about it.

[Unexpected Item In Bagging Area]

Thanks for the replies. It looks as though I might be able to defer again if I have a good, er, case.

[Tiggsy]

deferred twice - self employed, cant spare the time.

[Ki3r]

Feel free to pass them my details, would love to do it.

[Vron]

Ki3r said:

Feel free to pass them my details, would love to do it.

Hope you don't get the case I did - two kids (they must have been over 18).

One (girl) had 'assaulted' the other (boy) by ripping their Ellesse T shirt in retaliation for being called 'specky four eyes'. I kid you not.

The Judge gave us all a lecture at the end to say how right it was that the case had come to Court. I think he could sense how pissed off we all were.

Anyhow, the most worrying thing was the standard of the other 'jurors'. One woman insisted the girl should be found not guilty (she was) purely because she though the girl had been brave to come to court regardless of any evidence presented. Others couldn't even read the oath card.

[Unexpected Item In Bagging Area]

My brother sat on a five-week long terrorism case years ago and came away rather despondent about the average person's mental ability. Also a couple of his fellow jurors managed to conclude that the defendant was guilty before the case had started purely because he had a foreign name...

[Red Devil]

Reading the last two posts I immediately thought of this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSG38tk6TpI

[Sheepshanks]

Vron said:

One woman insisted the girl should be found not guilty (she was) purely because she though the girl had been brave to come to court regardless of any evidence presented.

As she was the defendant she didn't have much choice about coming to court.


On the OPs point, maybe it's changed but my missus said she couldn't do it due to childcare and she never heard anything again.

[Tiggsy]

I was always told juries were 12 people to daft enough to get out of being on a jury!