I got selected for jury service. I chose to defer it initially and picked some dates for which I could attend. I got a letter telling me I’m required to attend court on 20 Feb. I accepted this date and booked time off work.
Today I received a phone call from the court. The lady asks me if I want to attend to which I reply, I kinda have to – have been summoned. She then goes on to say she can excuse me if I wish and I won’t have to attend. It’s not a deferral either. She’ll excuse me and that’s me done with jury service.
Is this normal practice? I thought it was a bit weird that she was ready to excuse me without a justified excuse.
5 comments
Could it be a case of they expect *x* number of people to not be able to attend each summons and they’re actually maxed out at number of jurors they actually need if everyone actually *can* attend this time round?
Some cases get cancelled and given the number of people that have to be present for some trials, you can’t just reschedule at the drop of a hat.
So, looks like you got lucky.
I was asked if I could do jury service a week earlier than planned at one point (which worked out better for me) so stuff no doubt changes on a regular basis.
Sounds like they don’t need all the people they’ve called up and are thinning the herd. Lots of people get there and are excused without even going in because of numbers or cases being cancelled. Perhaps the court is just trying to save everyone the hassle, which seems nice.
I had exactly this happen many years ago. Received a call on the Friday to say I could be excused, I had already agreed the time off work.
Naturally, I took the opportunity to be excused, but elected not to share this news with my employer and had an unexpected week off work (or it might have been 2 weeks, can’t remember now)
I do recall being jolly happy about the whole situation.
A lot of employers don’t provide full pay whilst you’re on jury service or the colleague has to use their holiday time – also self employed people get royally screwed by it! They were likely just giving you the option to bail out if you wish as it’s a major hassle for a lot of people financially.