I also work for myself, I managed to defer it the first time but could not get out of it second time.

Would only pay for public transport expenses too, they would not pay the £35 a day car parking charge. So I used the train to get there. They then dismissed me early the first 3 days, by the time I got home on public transport (bus then train) it was too late to go to my clients site. So I thought sod this I will take the hit and pay the car parking myself so I can go to work and earn some money. I bet you can guess what happened then 🙂 Never got released early for the next 7 days I was there.

Cost me a packet but at the end of the day if we want a top quality justice system we all have to do our part !!!

Out in the real world how many times do you have conversations with people that don’t grasp simple points because they belong to ideas they haven’t personally learnt about, and have a stubborn mental block to acquiring any new knowledge that doesn’t personally affect them

A lot less often than on here

It`s a bit of a lottery really – i managed to get out of it 1st time because i had an overseas holiday booked – TRUE !!
Second time summond 6 months later i went along and landed a double murder 😯 on the second day . The trial went into a third week and on the friday one of the jury had booked to see a certain warbler in London so court was adjourned for that Friday – and went into a fourth week …
Work wasn`t impressed but there ya go .. Never liked the Barlow songster until then 😆
The other side of the coin being some folk never got called into court for the whole 2 weeks . A total lottery but if youre not called and most of the courts have a jury sorted youll be sent home at lunchtime and told to ring to find out if youre needed the next day . Youd be very unlucky/lucky (depends how you see things..) to be called for the full 2 weeks . I found it fascinating .

Go to the doctors, tell them you’ve been having suicidal thoughts, inform the jury service.

Assuming you are depressed. 8)

I’m insured against this ie I get a payout if I’m called, I wouldn’d consider getting out of it as I reckon its one of my few ‘duties’. I vote I pay tax and I bitch constantly but its a responsibility I kind of accept and have planned for.

I also accept that it is a duty we should all be prepapred to undertake as part of our responsibility to society, as a way of preserving the way of life and civil liberties our predecessors fought dearly and costly wars to retain. I suspect it would also be quite enlightening/depressing in equal parts.
I just don’t see why jurors, and hence their families, and posisibly their employees, and their families, should suffer considerable financial hardship, when you consider the HOOOOOGE amounts of money swilling around being spent on on every other aspect of the criminal justice system/legal aid etc.
I am not suggesting we should be paying massive wages to Jurors, i just don’t think it helps the system if the motivated and intelligent amongst society have to come up with stupid excuses to get out of their reponsibility to avoid potential financial ruin. Being slightly worse off we might have to accept. Being made homeless we cannot!
And if the money has to be found to do that, how about a few less Sky TV sets, internet access, single rooms for the end product of the criminal justice system!

i just don’t think it helps the system if the motivated and intelligent amongst society have to come up with stupid excuses to get out of their reponsibility

It’s less a point of money for many, though naturally the self-employed do bear the riskon this (and so need to ensure their business interruption insurance covers this), but more that many of the more insightful and intelligent jurors effectively excuse themselves from one of the most important roles in society.

Sometimes it seems like a badge of honour to escape the duty, rather than a privilege to have been asked.

I’m a lawyer, so was automatically exempt until a few years ago. I’d be delighted to be called. Not because I think being a lawyer gives me some special insight into criminal cases (my background is M&A and technology – besides jurors are there for facts, not points of law), but because I’d like to contribute to the fairnress and propriety of our justice system.

A guy at my work was called up, his case was a nominal 6 weeks, then extended to 8. Came back to work and found himself at the front of the list for redundancy – lost his job. I can’t help but think things may have been different if he had been ‘seen at work’ for the previous 2 months…