Reply to: Jury Service

[reginald]

Its all very simple really. If you get the letter through the post, bin it, do not reply, end of. Ive had 2 in the last 5 years, no probs. I refuse to waste my time only for some junkie shoplifter to plead guilty at the 11th hour.

Too right. The last jury service summons I had didn't arrive by recorded / registered delivery so straight in the bin it went. Didn't hear a peep.

[One Nihilist]

Isn't that a criminal offence or something ?

Innocent till proven guilty... Seriously, they get enough nosey bast'rds replying not to bother chasing up.

[andy]

Its all very simple really. If you get the letter through the post, bin it, do not reply, end of. Ive had 2 in the last 5 years, no probs. I refuse to waste my time only for some junkie shoplifter to plead guilty at the 11th hour.

Isn't that a criminal offence or something ?

[One Nihilist]

Its all very simple really. If you get the letter through the post, bin it, do not reply, end of. Ive had 2 in the last 5 years, no probs. I refuse to waste my time only for some junkie shoplifter to plead guilty at the 11th hour.

[Gonzo]

Anyone on here been approached? I don’t think I could afford to do it, are the rules different for self employed people? You can hardly drop what you're doing and say I'm off for anything between 2 and 6 weeks... on £56 pd

Afraid it is difficult to avoid (unless you are not on the electoral roll but that can cause you other problems, or you move around the country frequently).

The insurance that comes with PGCPlus will pay out up to £300 a day for two weeks I think.

If you are called up it is possible to put your case to the Judge to get out of it but I don't expect them to be too sympathetic.

I did mine last year. There was a "real" self employed person serving at the same time. He was in the middle of fitting out a restaurant so had a deadline and had to carry on doing his day job first thing in the morning and in the evening.

You just need to pray that you don't get allocated to a case that is going to last for months.

[oraclesmith]

I did two weeks and sent in a claim for my actual loss of earnings - waste of time - they only paid fifty odd quid a day plus some expenses.

As for the actual jury service, I went in for about 4 days of the 10 days period and sat in the canteen for three hours each day until they sent us all home. The other 6 days they didn't even want us to turn up. Waste of my time, waste of public money.

[Pondlife]

I thought there was insurance to cover you against jury service? or was that some hot air touted by an ex-umbrella company?

PCGPlus membership gives it

[andy]

walk upto defendent and just say
' hello mate how you doing '
should get you excused

[Burdock]

I thought there was insurance to cover you against jury service? or was that some hot air touted by an ex-umbrella company?

[Churchill]

I just plead insanity.

Wow, you're good!

[WindyAnna]

Hubbie was called a few months ago. Although the documentation says "you will be compensated for loss of proven earnings" what that actually means, as you so rightly say, is 56pd plus exes.

He rang them up and explained that he was in the middle of a major project and could not take the time off, they said that his employer was legally bound to release him, he pointed out that he is employed in NL so no legal obligation. They asked him to write a nice letter explaining about the major project and then they did a deal where he does two days in Coroners Court on an inquest instead.

Cheers

Windy

[Bagpuss]

just tell them you are against the new gay school books. Should get you off for being a homophobe

[AtW]

I read about legal cases from papers and find that a lot of decisions seem pretty fair, the only main issue I have is low prison sentences but this is due to lack of prisons and this is fault of the Govt. Another issue is current bias towards women in divorce cases, but this is legislation that is driven by Govt.

Corruption is when judge takes bribes and makes decisions that are not based on law - there sure some mistakes, perhaps they are driven by bribes, but you can always appeal and solid cases get justice in the end.

Anyway, in important criminal cases it is the jury who decides if someone guilty or not - which is precisely why all good citizens should consider it an honour to serve as a jury, loss of income is regrettable and Govt should do more about compensation (maybe from the party that loses court case), but to ignore responsibility of a juror by saying justice is corrupt is rubbish - you - the juror - is the one who will make decision guilty/not-guilty, the only corruption to worry about if whether YOU are corrupt or not.

[Churchill]

If you want to avoid jury service for the rest of your life either marry a police officer or commit a crime.

[gingerjedi]

But if I came from a 3rd world country I would never be asked and the same applies if I had criminal record, so there you go crime does pay.

It’s alright for permies as almost all companies understand the system and allow suitable leave, I know a permie who was called up for 2 weeks and ended up doing it for 6, this could ruin a business.

I think you can defer once.