Jury Service

[Howburn]

I have been summond for Jury Duty. It is sonthibg I am interested to do and I am prepaired to do, but I am self employed.

From what I have read you need very good resons to get out of it, or if your an MP no problem. But you can defer it, if you already have a holiday booked etc, but you can only defer it the once.

The expensise/rumination are more of a concern to me, rough figures are £30 per 1/2 day loss of earnings or £60 for a full day, £5 meals and £0.30/mile travleling. It goes on to say if you areself employed you can obtain a form from the Jury clark for loss of ernings, but you need to substanitite this with proof such as accounts, letter from your accountant or proof of promesed work etc. It all sounds a bit vague, I have had a look on the web and there are lots of storys of what people did/did not get etc, but really looking for some first hand experiance of sombody else self employed.
Cheers

 

[M@tt]

do you have business/professional insurance? sometime they will cover that

I know the insurance they offer me as an IT contractor does

might be worth a look,

HTH

 

[rkde]

Also I have been told that you can turn it down once on the terms that if you do the service you will not be able to make ends meet or will let clients down.
I personally would be up a huge creak if I was called as I have so many clients relying on me.

 

[rtbcomp]

Will they compensate you if you lose a customer to a competitor whilst you're on jury service?

 

[Howburn]

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do you have business/professional insurance? sometime they will cover that

I know the insurance they offer me as an IT contractor does

might be worth a look,



Hadn’t thought of that, will look into it.


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Also I have been told that you can turn it down once on the terms that if you do the service you will not be able to make ends meet or will let clients down.
I personally would be up a huge creak if I was called as I have so many clients relying on me.

From what I have read in the info that came with it and HMRC websites, if you defer it you should give a range of available dates, I haven’t seen anything in the official papers or websites that you can turn it down solely due to loss of earnings or people relying on you, other than being in the professions listed or if you already had a holiday pre booked. Although you would think if you were unable to make ends meet then there must be a way round, I suspect you would have to prove it.

 

[NigelAylesbury]

I don’t know many people who have been called to do it. I heard they do tend to “pick on” people who will be free to do it- unconfirmed though.
My mum’s neighbour did it and was expecting to hear the usual 2 weeks of drunk and disorderly, the odd burglary, GBH, driving bans and the like. The penultimate day, a case started which was a particularly vicious murder; the woman had been sliced up by her husband with a machete! - this went on for a further 4 weeks, which of course meant the jury service lasted for 6 weeks in total.
Quite how you get out of that jury service – I don’t know – anybody else know?

 

[tigler]

I know I'll never get the call !
I have a driving conviction that counts as a criminal record !! The Cop responsible should also have a criminal record for perjury !!
PS, it wasn't drunk driving.
The MD of a company I worked for many years ago had to do Jury service and he tried everything to get out of it due to the potential consequences of being away from his fledgling company. Fell on deaf ears, he was almost arrested for his protests ! He ended up sitting on a big murder case which took over 6 weeks !!

 

[awemawson]

I've been called for Jury Service twice so far - once about 25 years ago and recently last year. I've found that the Jury Clerks are extrememly helpful - the self employed chaps on my last session didn't have a problem with the remuneration

 

[TechnicAl]

I was told to grow a beard. You have to turn up but they rarely pick you. I did and I went every day for 2 weeks and got picked only once for a single day trial.
They usually let me go before 10 am but occasionally it was after lunch.

Ive also heard that if you are a little hard of hearing they will avoid you. So when they shout your name dont move, when they shout it again you say " pardon was that my name you were shouting. Sorry Im a little deaf".

 

[SwissTony]

Pretend you have tourettes or say you have IBS.
Could also start talking to yourself.

 

[Hitch]

I did it about 5 years ago.
I cant comment as a self employed person, but as an employee, i did loose out on a small amount of money. I seem to recall the maximum they give you per day is capped, which was less than my hourly wage per day.

About 4 of the days i wasnt needed at all, did about 3 full days, and the other 3 were just a couple of hours in the morning.

The clerk told us we wouldn't be needed on a Friday either week on day 1, thats when they dish out the sentences.

Lunch, for us we had a card thing, that was credited every day, if you went home before lunch, you could get £5 worth of stuff and take it home if you so wished, the clerk told us to do so.

Actual time sat in the court room was minimal, a lot of it was waiting around being shuffled in and out the court room.

You get a lot of time to sit around, so could be a time to do some paperwork, write quotes up etc perhaps.

As someone else mentioned they are quite helpfull.


The case i sat on....was a flasher.... exposing himself in Topshop

 

[SwissTony]

The case i sat on....was a flasher.... exposing himself in Topshop

You sure you were called there as a juror?

 

[Robotstar5]

I was called up for jury service in a coroners court in the late '80s and was looking forward to it, but my company didn't want me to go and got me cancelled somehow

 

[Spud1985]

I got called up in 2006 but got out of it as it was just after my grandad died an my business had allready suffered because of the time i had taken off to help care for him i dont really see how they can force you to do it i mean there allways on about human rights arnt they so surely forceing someone to do something they dont want to do cant be right ...............

 

[brightspark]

I got called up in 2006 but got out of it as it was just after my grandad died an my business had allready suffered because of the time i had taken off to help care for him i dont really see how they can force you to do it i mean there allways on about human rights arnt they so surely forceing someone to do something they dont want to do cant be right ...............

the goverment force me to pay tax i dont want to do it ive been on jury service. drugs and fire arms case down middlesbrough was well worth going not to be missed GUILTY

 

[madkayaker]

Im there on 1st nov

 

[Howburn]

Pretend you have tourettes or say you have IBS.
Could also start talking to yourself.

I all ready have all three

 

[Howburn]

Im there on 1st nov

I may see you there I am on the 8th Nov

 

[awemawson]

I got called up in 2006 but got out of it as it was just after my grandad died an my business had allready suffered because of the time i had taken off to help care for him i dont really see how they can force you to do it i mean there allways on about human rights arnt they so surely forceing someone to do something they dont want to do cant be right ...............

On my first session the was a Jamacan chap who had been summoned twice and failed to turn up. This time the police physically brought him to court and kept him there. He was on one jury I served on and it didn't make for an easy time as he had a bit of a slant on what evidence the police presented!!!

 

[madkayaker]

Hang the lot of them then!