Jury duty - self employed. Can I be excused?

It's just what you need to do if you want to be part of a civilised society that has jury trials, definitely need education if you think it's like a draft. If you don't want to do it then you need to remove yourself from the electroral register

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FailPowerful5476@reddit

You can get arrested for just ignoring the letters.

I don't know if its an out or not but ive heard some people say tp tell them you would love to come and say some kind of racist or prejudice remark.

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gaz3028@reddit

I emailed the day before I was meant to turn up and told them I won't be attending.

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OkSun8521@reddit

How did that work out for you?

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gaz3028@reddit

Never heard a peep from them and not been asked again.

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Same_Difference_3361@reddit

https://www.gov.uk/jury-service/what-you-can-claim-if-youre-self-employed

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

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nonoanddefinitelyno@reddit

Holy shit. I'm self-employed too and this would completely fuck me. Existential fear unlocked.

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scorcherchar@reddit

You can buy insurance for it

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nonoanddefinitelyno@reddit

That wouldn't help me. The problem is my clients not getting their work done.

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Legal_Alternative258@reddit

"up to £64.95 to help cover your loss of earnings and the cost of any care or childcare outside of your usual arrangements"

64.95? What do they base this ridiculously low sum on?

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PolarLocalCallingSvc@reddit

Minimum wage after tax and NI I believe. At least it used to be very close.

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buy_me_lozenges@reddit

Do you have any other staff that you're responsible for? I know someone self-employed that is also responsible for transporting other members of the team to work, and therefore if they attended jury duty, the rest of the staff wouldn't be able to go to work either.

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

I work as my own person but with alongside others. This would also render them unable to work

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buy_me_lozenges@reddit

You can provide that as an explanation, that's what happened with the person I know and they were excused due to that.

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

Great to know thank you

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mikpgod@reddit

You can get insurance for this, but don't know how much it costs.

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EnergeticallyTired@reddit

Mine is bundled in with my home insurance!

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Temporary-Zebra97@reddit

Mine is bundled in with professional liability insurance, it was given as a "freebie" along with some cyber protection cover.

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Dr_Gillian_McQueef@reddit

Say you believe in jury nullification. That's where you know the person is guilty but you think that morally they shouldn't be, ie a battered woman killing her spouse. Was historically used in the Fugitive Slave Act etc.

Once you say you believe in that there's no way they'll want you.

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ampmz@reddit

Please don’t do this, you can be held in contempt.

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Dr_Gillian_McQueef@reddit

You can't tell other people to do it but you can believe it yourself.

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memcwho@reddit

Why?

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OkSun8521@reddit

Juries Act 1974 Section 20C

It is an offence for a member of a jury that tries an issue in a case before a court intentionally to engage in prohibited conduct during the trial period [...]

“Prohibited conduct” means conduct from which it may reasonably be concluded that the person intends to try the issue otherwise than on the basis of the evidence presented in the proceedings on the issue.

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memcwho@reddit

But is that not then a massive waste of everyone's time?

I am reasonably outspoken on the issue, personally. I would always have nullification in the back of my mind. At what point do I mention that? I'm not going to ignore piles of evidence, but I cannot also in good conscience convict for something that is either victimless, or entirely morally justifiable, if not legally.

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OkSun8521@reddit

You are allowed to make a decision based on your own beliefs. You can't say it though.

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AlmightyRobert@reddit

Perhaps because it contradicts the oath that you swear as a juror to “faithfully try the defendant and give a true verdict based on evidence”

And in England it’s rare that you would be asked questions before the trial other than whether you know any of the parties involved.

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OkSun8521@reddit

This is ridiculously terrible advice.

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OkSun8521@reddit

Surely this is one of the things you considered before you decided to become self-employed?

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No-Locksmith6662@reddit

£65 per day is much lower than I thought it would be, and I was already thinking pretty low. No way in hell that would cover any self-employed person's actual loss of earnings if you lose whole jobs because of it.

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S4mb741@reddit

It should really be done proportional to earnings. I'm sure it was like £50ish, maybe £5 a day for lunch, and they paid for.my train fare when I did it sometime around 2010. I was a student at the time and it was in the summer break so it was great for me. That was about what I earned working a day in a super market. Now it's unlikely that it even covers minimum wage.

What's worse is that if you are only in court for less than 4 hours you only get £32 which can often happen the first few days while they assign people to cases.

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Ring_Peace@reddit

Yeah I think it should be proportional to your earnings.

I think there should be far more things that are proportional to your earnings. Simple everyday things like speeding fines, parking tickets, why should someone on minimum wage pay the same for a parking fine as, say, a self employed tradesman earning 10 times the daily rate.

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ughhhghghh@reddit

Because they've both broken the law or not adhered to parking regulations. If you know you're going to struggle to pay a fine, probably shouldn't speed.

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Ok-Humor-5672@reddit

After my wife got called up she and I had a good long talk about this and it's such a weird nuanced thing. It's our civic duty, and you're not being paid for your expertise and skill in your day to day job, so why is it "fair" to pay a ceo £1550 per day vs an unemployed person £65 when reasonably they're being asked to perform the same role.

On the flipside, for a lot of people, £65 is meaningless. I earn the median salary and that's about 3 hours work for me. Who's covering the other 4.5 hours? Why should I have to be out of pocket and potentially cause financial suffering for my family.

I really think it's a lose-lose situation. No matter what you do, you'll always upset someone.

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audigex@reddit

I think the sensible answer is that it's proportionate to income but on a sliding scale

It should absolutely cover 100% of any earnings up to minimum wage, because if we think people can't afford to live on less than that, why the fuck do we think they can afford to do jury duty on less than that?

Then maybe 50% of anything up to double that, to account for the fact that your costs don't just vanish above minimum wage while recognising that we probably shouldn't cover luxury spending for high earners

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Ok-Humor-5672@reddit

Yeah I think that's probably the approach that would piss off the least amount of people and make the most sense imo.

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scarby2@reddit

£65 is pretty meaningless if you live in London generally, it's not even going to cover rent/mortgage on a median property. Let alone bills, car payment etc. and some trials go on for weeks/months.

I know they try to take this info account when assigning people but it's still terrifying because these systems don't always work.

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Ok-Humor-5672@reddit

It definitely needs rethinking because otherwise you end up with jury pools heavily weighted with unemployed or retired people. I'm just glad I don't have to figure out the solution.

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scarby2@reddit

Unemployed/retired people or people with employers who continue to pay you (which is pretty common) I'm currently unemployed but my last UK job had insurance and would continue to pay me, even on full pay taking a month off may not be possible if you run a small business however.

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audigex@reddit

I think the point stands, though, that you no longer get a representative randomly selected jury

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audigex@reddit

I know they try to take this info account when assigning people but it's still terrifying because these systems don't always work.

And that's a problem too, because if a bunch of people are sent home or assigned to shorter cases to help them go home faster, you're no longer being tried by a jury of your peers and the jury is no longer representative of the population

Instead of every case having a random cross section of society, you instead find that short cases are tried by a jury of low earners and long cases by retirees and higher earners, which is clearly not the intent of the jury system

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audigex@reddit

Now it's unlikely that it even covers minimum wage.

About 2/3 of minimum wage, by my maths

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theheadgardener@reddit

Needs to track min wage at least to not be a total joke

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ProfessorYaffle1@reddit

Yes - it's below minimum wage (although I suspect it may be based on minimum wage but only counting 1--4 with an unpaid lunch break, as that's the standard hours that court's typically sit)

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amytee252@reddit

Jurors have to be there for longer.

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No-Locksmith6662@reddit

It's supposed to be a grant to cover loss of earnings, it is not a "wage". You are not paid for jury service.

I'm fortunate enough to work for a company that would continue to pay me if I was called up for jury service but for those that either won't or are self employed it is a big slap in the face. If they're a plumber and had budgeted to earn, say, £200 a day that very quickly becomes a problem if the state aren't willing or able to fully reimburse their losses.

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scarby2@reddit

It's based on a number that the Lord chancellors office essentially pulls out of their ass. It should really at a bare minimum be indexed to the median income in the area of a court.

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VerbingNoun413@reddit

I don't think anyone claims it's supposed to. Otherwise jury duty would be optional and people would take it.

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audigex@reddit

It's genuinely ridiculous how little you get, for something so important

It's equivalent to about 2/3 of minimum wage, or 40% of an average salary

And then we expect people to go along and fully engage with an incredibly important part of our legal system... when in reality most are probably sitting there hoping they can wrap things up ASAP so that they stop haemorrhaging money

I wonder how many people have been given the wrong verdict because jurors couldn't afford to stay and deliberate so just went along with the majority? I'd be willing to bet it happens

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skatemoose@reddit

That would only cover 16-17yr olds wage for a day.

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unemployabler@reddit

Check your home insurance to see if they cover lost earnings for jury duty. I got a large cheque after I missed two weeks of work.

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Swimming-Trade-6892@reddit

I received it, I didn’t even respond to it. I’m not being involved in somebody going down for a crime they may or may not have committed. Forcing me to lose work and pay, to deal with the anxiety and stress of all of that.

My partner had also received one and didn’t reply either years before I met her. She said they should pay you your living wage if they want you to lose a day if not more to doing that.

And if it ever came out that the person I said guilty to, was innocent I’d have to live with that forever.

No thanks. I didn’t respond because that’s acknowledgement I’ve received it and then I’m into a conversation about my legal requirements as a citizen. Nah, didn’t receive the letter. Find somebody else.

And whilst I’m at it, the majority of people are so thick that I’m actually scared a random jury is chosen these days. Imagine 8 mongos deciding whether a man with 2 little children goes down for a crime that’s 50/50. I remember in school when we had debates and group challenges. People are dumb. I’m being a part of it.

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Pocket_Aces1@reddit

< You will not be paid for doing jury service, but you can claim some money back if your earnings are affected. For each day you’re at court, you can usually claim:

up to £64.95 to help cover your loss of earnings and the cost of any care or childcare outside of your usual arrangements *£5.71 for food and drink
the cost of travel to and from court

How haven't they realised this would immediately bias the jury. I'm losing out on over half my daily rate if I get selected for jury duty. I would immediately be biased towards everyone there because they've made me lose money.

You can request to postpone it, but they'll keep requesting dates. Pay an actual rate for it like a normal job would, and then people would be more inclined to do it

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JettG@reddit

I've postponed it 5 times. They don't take the hint. I get a letter every year now.

I just don't get how they can expect anyone to do this for £65.00 a day, absolute joke.

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Dominionix@reddit

Apparently once you've been selected it's very common to be re-selected.

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OkSun8521@reddit

You are committing a serious criminal offence each time you do this.

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smeghead9916@reddit

Last time I checked slavery is a criminal offense. Forcing people to do it without proper reimbursement is why so many people hate doing jury service.

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OkSun8521@reddit

You think jury service is slavery?

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smeghead9916@reddit

People don't have a choice and aren't compensated even minimum wage for it, so yes.

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OkSun8521@reddit

It's not though is it?

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JettG@reddit

How... I tell them I'm busy and it would cause serious financial hardship. I'm not ignoring them.

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Decent_Confidence_36@reddit

Bizarre how jury duty is forced on people, I read somewhere you can say day 1 that due to personal reasons you don’t feel you can be truly impartial

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weekedipie1@reddit

Throw it in the bin 😁

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ohdeydothodontdeytho@reddit

Your country needs you.

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

So much so that they’re contemplating scrapping jurys 😂

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ohdeydothodontdeytho@reddit

Well, not entirely. It's gone from jury of peers to jury of tiktokers.

Basically at any one time there'll be 20000 tiktok 'jurors' logged in who will decide verdicts with a 60 second timer going in the background.

Totally anonymous so no worries about data protection n all that.

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glasstraxx@reddit

I just postponed from early march as I was stuck in Australia and I haven't been called again (yet)

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kashie333@reddit

I delayed for 1 year , it suppose to be Jan 26 and got changed to next Jan 27, can I postponed near Jan 27?

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MisterWhippy2024@reddit

I did jury service at the beginning of the year and I’m self employed. I wasn’t even used for the full two weeks, so actually smashed through loads of work (freelance photographer/marketing) - the only soul destroying part was wasting those two weeks, and the inefficiency of the court system.

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Antique-Amoeba1218@reddit

Just tell them you dont believe in the rule of law and will annul any charges your asked to procide over and they will make sure you dont get asked again 😅

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Programmer-Severe@reddit

A single juror doesn't have that level of influence, the judge can decide to go with a majority verdict

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Antique-Amoeba1218@reddit

They will still take you off the list. I did it myself!

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infectedsense@reddit

My mum used to say just turn up and say 'all coppers are bastards' to get recused 😂

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Programmer-Severe@reddit

You can postpone, but you're unlikely to be excused entirely. It's a duty that comes with the benefits of living in a functioning society

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btodman93@reddit

And when do they deliver on there side of this bargain?

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VOOLUL@reddit

The idea is that when you need to be put in front of a jury then it's your peers deciding your fate just like you decided someone else's. Hopefully you don't end up in that situation, but if you do then you'd hope you'd get people from all walks of life, including the successful and highly educated which are likely to put a lot more thought into the case.

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Kiardras@reddit

As opposed to a group of people picking the easiest option to finish quickly so they don't end up in rent arrears? Its a stupid fucking system, if they are not going to compensate you fully for your lost earnings it's not worth it.

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NeighborhoodLife3408@reddit

Is that what the UK claims to be these days?

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Programmer-Severe@reddit

Despite what people may say, it absolutely is by global standards. There are few better. The judicial system is fair and uncorrupted, in particular

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TerrySwan69@reddit

First sentence accurate, second not

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sakmentoloki@reddit

Does It though?

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Beautiful_Path_3519@reddit

I've was excused jury service after writing a letter that said "I'm self-employed and currently working for a client who would need to find an alternative supplier if I was unable to work for them for more than three days. Once they had engaged the other supplier it likely that they would cease working with me and effectively I will be left unemployed"

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TeamOfPups@reddit

I'm self employed. I've been summoned six times in the last 12 years. Once they start asking, they keep asking.

I don't feel like I've got the sort of job that they'd excuse me for - office type stuff - but I've been excused four times for other reasons:

was in hospital having a baby
had a holiday booked
childminder had a holiday booked
had been shortlisted for a jury within past 12 months

I've done jury duty twice but never actually served on a jury. The last time I did it I didn't even step foot in the building. It was annoying because obviously I'd had to clear my diary anyway.

It's a huge disruption and cost.

Was twice as shit the first time when I had to pay out for childcare AND lose money on the day rate.

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Smooth_Brilliant4083@reddit

Wrong I know, but this wasn't me. I know of a woman that turned up on the day and said to the registrar "I think I know that person." He let her go there and then. I asked her if it was true and she said she couldn't be 100% sure.

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Fly_Boy_Blue@reddit

I wonder if that would count as "obligation met" so you don't get called again.

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amytee252@reddit

Nope, you just go back into the pool.

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OkSun8521@reddit

No, because that's not how it works.

You arrive on Monday morning and sit in a room and wait to be assigned to a case. They call 16 people, but only need 12. They present the defendants to the 16 of you, give you a very brief idea of what the case is about, and give you a list of the names of everyone involved in the case. At that point, you can say that you know one of the people involved, or that you are unsuitable in some other way. If the judge accepts what you have said, you are sent back to wait for a new case. They then randomly select 12 people from whoever is left.

The best that you can hope for is that you're not assigned to anything and they send you home on Thursday afternoon and tell you to come back on Monday.

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mikpgod@reddit

But you just get put back in the pool for another case, not excused

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Equal_Assistant962@reddit

I recently did jury service in the Coroner’s court. 14 of us turned up on the first morning. We were firstly asked three questions. Those particular questions didn’t exclude anyone. Next we were asked if there were any reasons we couldn’t be available for the next two weeks. Someone said they were self employed and was allowed to go, someone else said they were a carer for family member and also left immediately. So that left 12 of us for a jury of 11 that was required. The last person left after we all went into court and we were all given a number from 1-12 and one number was pulled out and that person was then discharged too. I was fortunate that my employer paid me for what turned out to be three weeks. I also did jury service in the crown court a few years ago (jury of 12 required ) and it was a similar process in that they have more people than they need initially because they know some people won’t be able to do it for the required time.

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blahblah-76@reddit

Yes you can defer, I did this being self-employed to a 'quieter' period so less loss of earnings. You can choose dates that suit you. It's a massive hit as what you can claim for loss of earnings is nowhere near a day/hourly rate or even minimum wage!

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

So after you deferred you haven’t had another summons?

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Fit-Seaworthiness940@reddit

My 2 cents - i was on jury service in the pool for a 4 month long trial.

About 30 potential jurors go in before the trial and the judge asks each one any reason why they couldnt be on the jury for that length of time.

One of the other potential jurors said he was self-employed and so couldn't commit to that long as it would damage his business, and the judge said although he was sympathetic, that isn't a valid reason not to be kept in the pool.

Meanwhile someone else said they had a holiday booked in 6 weeks and they were let go.

Slightly unethical advice is book a holiday 2-3 weeks after your jury service is due to end (and do actually book it as they check). That should stop you being put on a longer trial at least.

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

Good to know thanks

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Waltuh_Whitey@reddit

I can’t help you here but I am desperate to do jury duty. Can you nominate me?

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Octoboy1@reddit

I promise you, jury duty is not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

Its dull as fuck and a particularly interesting case, most people get really mundane things.

But even in my case its so boring, court is nothing like it is in TV and film

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greg225@reddit

I did it January 2024. The worst part is the sheer amount of fucking waiting around you have to do. 12 of us in a cramped room with a radiator permanently at max, waiting an indeterminate time to maybe go back into the courtroom with uncomfortable chairs for probably 30 minutes before being sent back out because they need to discuss some legal minutae for an hour. Oh they're finally read for us to go back in, 15 minutes later it's lunchtime so fuck off for an hour. Took absolutely ages and that's not even getting into the issues I had with the actual legal proceedings themselves.

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Dutch_Slim@reddit

I was called twice in 2 years, and didn’t get a case either time!

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Chilledinho@reddit

Yeah it’s actually quite grim. Travel to the court, sit around for a few hours (sometimes only 2 hours if fuck all happens) then you’re sent home and you’ve wasted half a day

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smeghead9916@reddit

I wish people could nominate themselves, then there'd be less unwilling people forced to do it. I know tons of people that would like to and have never had to do it, while my friend who works full time had to do it twice in five years.

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onionsofwar@reddit

If you're interested in passing your judgment in a court you can train to be a magistrate. Also, most courts have a public gallery you can just enter into the Old Bailey for example.

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Zealousideal-Habit82@reddit

I loved it when I did it, found it super interesting and met some great people. I may have been lucky.

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Programmer-Severe@reddit

I've done it twice now, the second time I got a month long case! I'd rather have not done it, at least the second time anyway

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

You're really better asking on r/LegalAdviceUK if you want actual serious answers.

However, jury duty can affect everyone's earnings self-employed or not. If you're on a 0 hours contract you wouldn't be getting paid either. Unfortunately there's not much getting out of it.

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OkSun8521@reddit

If you're on a 0 hours contract you wouldn't be getting paid either.

This is not true. You are paid up to £64.95 per day to cover loss of earnings. This is based on your typical earnings, not your contractural earnings.

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

OP as a self-employed person is also entitled that £65 for loss of earnings so it's an entirely moot point. My point was that employees are very much in the same boat.

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OkSun8521@reddit

I don't understand what a 0 hours contract has to do with anything then?

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EmmaRoidCreme@reddit

Because loss of earnings is not solely a concern of the self employed.

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

This isn’t a tit for tat conversation. It’s about my specific position. I get that it affects different people in different ways but with respect, that isn’t my issue. The post was about my position.

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OkSun8521@reddit

Yes, it's a concern of everyone. But there's nothing special about a 0 hours contract.

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

Some companies will pay full time wages if their employee has jury duty, my wife’s company do so she wouldn’t be in the same position as me. In fact, she’d probably enjoy getting the call up 😂

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

If you’re on a zero hours, arguably jury duty would be worth more. Could end up on a 3 month case on £65 a week!

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CNash85@reddit

The court will only pay you for what you usually earn, so if you don't normally make £65 a day you can't claim that.

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

Not sure how the allowances or whatever work but I know they're a shameful pittance. My non legal opinion would probably be to get out of it by showing bias in some way. Saying something a bit off colour like "bet it's one of those boat people" will probably get you kicked off pretty quickly, but then I don't know if that could cause you other problems 😂

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_Jay-Garage-A-Roo_@reddit

My husband was recently excused on the grounds of being self employed.

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OkSun8521@reddit

If that actually happened, either he, or someone in the summoning office, broke the rules.

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_Jay-Garage-A-Roo_@reddit

Okay…. Well, I don’t know that he possibly could have broken a rule, given that all he did was tell them he had jobs booked. Idk about the summoning office rules, I’m not even eligible for jury duty.

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PvtRoom@reddit

if you say true things, you can get yourself kicked off, though you may need evidence.

Not many judges will let you be a juror if you can't possibly be impartial, but you may need to personally know the defendant.

most judges will excuse/defer service for health reasons/disability with a gp letter. they don't need someone with badly controlled IBS charging for the toilet every 30 mins.

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TryTrynTryAgain@reddit

Either

“I believe and have full faith in the police, they wouldn’t ever arrest someone unless they were guilty. The fact they are in court proves to me they are guilty”

Or

“I am an anarchist, I don’t believe any action is deserving of imprisonment. Whatever that person has done he is not guilty”

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pumpkin_piesk@reddit

I recently got called for jury service and couldn’t commit to the dates provided by the court. I phone the number on my summons and provided them with an alternative date instead of them providing me with an alternative date which they accepted

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Spirited_Opposite@reddit

I was summoned ages ago (and I would love to do it!) but couldn't go as I was on holiday, I actually never got round to contacting them to tell them and nothing ever happened to it, I'd probably just do that tbh

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Conscious_Analysis98@reddit

i'd probably........not

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TheTruthIsOutThere_x@reddit

Not sure about the self employed angle but I had to defer it when I got selected and I got another date pretty much straight away and you can only defer it once.

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smeghead9916@reddit

I don't understand why they don't prioritise unemployed people first. Most can't afford the loss of wages, (employers aren't required to pay them). I was struggling to find work for ages when I left college, they waited until I was working full time to make me do it.

My stepmother has hardly worked in her life because she was a housewife, she's never been asked to do it even though she actually wants to. I know a bunch of unemployed people who have never done it, yet my friend, an NHS employee, has had to do it twice in a five year span.

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OkSun8521@reddit

Because the whole point of a jury is that it's a representative sample of society.

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smeghead9916@reddit

There are a lot more working people than unemployed, there's no reason for my friend to be made to do it twice while others with no obligations never do it.

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OkSun8521@reddit

The reason is that it's random. Which is exactly what it's supposed to be.

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Expert-Tie-1530@reddit

Tricky one. I have heard that if you contact them, express the view that you have very strong attitudes and opinions around certain members of the community and if you had to be a juror you might not be able to come to a fair decision based on your attitudes, beliefs and opinions

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OkSun8521@reddit

This is a really stupid way to end up in prison.

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Expert-Tie-1530@reddit

Totally agree.

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No_Ring_3348@reddit

That's illegal, £1000 fine and a conviction if you're caught. Having an honesty offence on your record will bar you from most gainful employment.

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Stinkingsweatygooch@reddit

Just say something bigoted when you call to ask to no be called upon

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OkSun8521@reddit

This is the stupidest way to end up in prison.

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Able_Resident_1291@reddit

Wild how many people here are acting like ignoring a jury duty summons is no different to ignoring a TV licence warning

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Chopsticks_Charlie@reddit

Innit, who the fuck is gonna actually follow it up

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PugAndChips@reddit

The police...

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Chopsticks_Charlie@reddit

Behave

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VOOLUL@reddit

Their point is that it's not the same. You can fined and/or arrested for contempt of court. And they will follow it up, unlike a TV licence...

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

Yeah. Crazy!

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MuntyCatt@reddit

Get a criminal record. They leave you alone that way.

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OkSun8521@reddit

Only if you are sent to prison.

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xycm2012@reddit

You can postpone once but you are obliged to accept the next dates offered, regardless of circumstances. You can’t be excused completely anymore. When my wife phoned as she was abroad for the dates I think they gave her three alternative windows she “may” be called again for but they were massive (about six week blocks over the next six months) so not much help planning work and life around. She ended up being called up again a couple of months later and had to accept it. However was then not used at all!

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pinkpuffsorange@reddit

I postponed I think twice prior to going….. The worst part was on the very last day, I got chosen for an 8 week trial.

I stood up and addressed the judge to ask if I could please be excused as 10 weeks of not earning being self employed would leave me and family in a very difficult financial situation.

Dude was very nice and excused me…. I was legit sweating there for while!

Long and short, you can defer but they will come back to you. There is never a good time so my advice is just get it done out of the way as soon as you can.

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

Thanks ! Although I think I may try for a full excusal - seems possible in my work industry, so we will see

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pinkpuffsorange@reddit

Fingers crossed for you….

I hope it all works out. Honestly I know the stress it brings first hand. I had a 6 month old at home, wife on maternity and it was at a time when work was relatively tight anyhow when I had to go through with it.

Godspeed ;)

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fruitbat1994@reddit

You can ask to be excused. They don't have to accept. If it's of any comfort I've been selected for Jury Service 6 times and never actually made it to being a juror for various reasons, so there is a chance you might be able to get out of it.

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

Thanks

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Sluggybeef@reddit

I got exempted as a self employed person but because I had no one to care for my Livestock when I would be away on duty

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Able_Resident_1291@reddit

Self-employed people frantically ordering micro pigs every time they get a summons

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Sluggybeef@reddit

Im going to corner the micropig market and make millions

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Unusual_Sherbert2671@reddit

Say your mental health isn't the best

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Able_Resident_1291@reddit

"Your honour, I'm a Redditor"

"You're excused"

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user101aa@reddit

Just ignore the letter. It's not sent recorded delivery. If they catch up with you just say "What letter?"

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Able_Resident_1291@reddit

Generally in the eyes of the law, a letter having been sent via Royal Mail is considered to have been delivered within a couple of working days, recorded delivery or not.

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JettG@reddit

Just ask them to prove it...

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Able_Resident_1291@reddit

I promise you haven't found a secret loophole to ignoring jury service here. They don't need to prove it. The summons (and any follow up summonses) would be considered by courts to have been delivered unless you could provide evidence to suggest they hadn't been (e.g. by highlighting that you'd changed addresses, or there was a postal strike, or you could demonstrate consistent theft or destruction of your post, etc.)

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target51@reddit

If you get desperate, there is a way to get out of it, possibly. When interviewed or spoken to, you want to say "Based on the law I can find someone not guilty even if they are?" I this case they will most likely not want you anywhere near that court.

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normanriches@reddit

I got selected and the Friday before they asked if I could do a four week trial.
I told them two was my limit due to being self employed so they cancelled it.

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petemorley@reddit

Don’t ignore the letter. I contacted them and said I was self employed and couldn’t afford the time off so they cancelled mine.

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EldritchCleavage@reddit

If it would be ruinous they may let you postpone. I have farmer relatives who have done this for jury duty falling during harvest.

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ProfessionalMottsman@reddit

Tell them to send you a photo of the guilty party. You’ll know immediately if they’re a rotten ‘un that dunnit

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Jackk12121@reddit

Just ignore it

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BroodLord1962@reddit

If you ignore and don't turn up you will be fined

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Jackk12121@reddit

You can you didn’t receive the letter

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Jackk12121@reddit

I did nothing happened

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JoeBagadonut@reddit

You can ask to be excused and move your summons to a different time but you can't flat-out just say no.

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CrassulaOrbicularis@reddit

If you have legal protection on your home insurance check the small print - it can offer some coverage against loss of earnings for jury duty.

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Court_Gentry2021@reddit

You could always claim to be a racist for no smoke without a fire even if your not, just the thought of you being on a jury and a racist for any reason .would be a political nightmare for them, they will remove your name from the list

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PurplePlodder1945@reddit

You can postpone and they’ll ask you for 3 dates which suit you better. They then pick one. I recently got excused due to having IBS.

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YetAnotherInterneter@reddit

I’m just going to leave this here

https://youtu.be/uqH_Y1TupoQ

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muggyc15@reddit

Yes you can.explain to them the harm it will do.you won’t know how long the jury duty will go for.the money they give is not enough.well that’s what I did,and they scratched me off.ether way good luck.

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JacobSax88@reddit (OP)

Thanks

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