Jury Service

[msemma]

I have been called up for jury service, but need to defer it because of work commitments. What are people's experiences of deferring? How soon am I likely to be summonsed again and will I be told straight away? I have been told to state dates within the next 12 months when I cannot do jury service - are they likely to ignore this and just give me any dates anyway?

[JudgeJ]

You will be summonsed again to serve within the next twelve months. This usually takes a few weeks to come through. The dates you provide for your non-availability will most certainly be taken into account when re-issuing your summons. The Department for Constitutional affairs aims to have as large a participation in jury service as possible and it is not in their interests to arrange dates which people have said they cannot make.

You will not be allowed to defer your service for a second time so you need to ensure the information you provide along with your deferral request is as accurate as possible.

[Pippa68]

5 years ago I was called for jury service. I had given birth 2 weeks earlier, so wrote to say it would be impossible for me to attend at that time. They agreed with me, and I haven't been called upon since.

[Carby]

I got a summonse letter once and just ignored it, didn't go to the court or anything. Didn't hear a word about it.

[Yorkie580]

JudgeJ... in your experience, how often are police officers actually included in a jury? When the law first cahged there was debate about whether any dfence barrister would actually accept a police officer on the jury or not in case of bias.

[Yorkie580]

should read "changed"