Jury Duty and Self Employed

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Annie51

Registered User
Messages
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I have been called for jury duty, but I am self employed and cannot afford to take time off work to attend. Can I use being 'self employed' as an excuse.
 
You can ask the registrar to excuse you on that basis. I wouldn't hold out much hope.
 
They are usually pretty understanding about not being able to do Jury duty. Just contact them and explain the situation.
 
Annie51 said:
I have been called for jury duty, but I am self employed and cannot afford to take time off work to attend. Can I use being 'self employed' as an excuse.
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Nope - there was a high profile case in Limerick a few years ago where a guy was going to go out of business if he had to serve, a friend of mine is a journalist and said this guy's story was heartbreaking but no exception was made for him.
 
I think as long as you can show good reason why you should be excused, it is possible.

From the Juries Act (section 9.2)
From Citizens info:
If you are self-employed and work alone and where your attendance at jury service may mean you cannot earn a living, you may qualify for excusal from jury service. Contact the jury office of the Court for more information.
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http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/courtroom/jury_service.html
 
Could you not just make it clear that you have racist/sexist/other beliefs that would exclude you from serving on a jury at selection ?
 
shesells said:
Nope - there was a high profile case in Limerick a few years ago where a guy was going to go out of business if he had to serve, a friend of mine is a journalist and said this guy's story was heartbreaking but no exception was made for him.
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Don't know that case but it must have been unique. I have seen self employed people get off, people with holidays get off, people with young kids get off. They are not there to ruin your life. It's your civic duty to serve but if you can't, you can't. It really isn't a big deal. It's one of the reasons why jury pools are so large compared to the amount of jurors they need at a given time.
 
TwoWheels said:
Could you not just make it clear that you have racist/sexist/other beliefs that would exclude you from serving on a jury at selection ?
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If they started excluding people with racist/sexist or other unacceptable views, the number of people available would be even less than now !!!!

Anyway, there is no jury selection in Ireland, like there is on the telly.

All the potential jurists sit in a waiting room next to the court room. The judge pulls names from a tombola. When your name is called, you enter the court room. Either barrister can object to you, but they do not get to ask you anything, they just get to look at you. You could try to look like someone they would object to, but that is a bit of a lottery. If you are rejected, you go back to the waiting room and wait for the next trial to start. Once the juries for the day are called, everyone else goes home and comes back the next day, to start all over again.
 
I got off on the grounds that my sister was getting married that week. I don't think they're as strict as people make out. My friend got off because she had baby twins. They are reasonable.
 
TwoWheels said:
Could you not just make it clear that you have racist/sexist/other beliefs that would exclude you from serving on a jury at selection ?
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I'm none of the above but I do have a fear that I would either not be able to concentrate enough on the finer details to make a proper judgement decision which will affect someone's life or that I or my family could be intimidated if I was involved in a high profile case.

I don't have a problem with concentration or anything like that but I have sat in on trials previously and found some of the details mind-mumbingly boring. As a jurior you just can't afford to loose concentration like that.
 
Given your name, you might think about following Homer's example and getting a pair of stay-awake glasses.

[broken link removed]
 
Hi all, I appreciate the advise in here. For the self employed people who got off, did you just return the form with a 2 or 3 line explanation or did you actually call the Jury office?
I am self employed IT contractor and work by myself for myself. Missing even 2 or 3 days would cause me undue financial strain and affect my ability to meet my financial commitments. Ironically I always wanted to serve on a Jury, but was made redundant in Oct 2010 and have worked as a contractor day to day since as I could not find perm work as easily as I had hoped. Any advice appreciated.
 
ok. The space on the enclosed form is barely enough for 2 sentences. Is there anything particular to emphasize in that space I wonder?

Also, it says to enclose the form in the enclosed pre-paid envelope. There is no envelope in the letter I received.
I guess I just write FREEPOST at the top of my own envelope? hmmm :/
 
Surely you can pay 55 cent?

Tell them you are self employed and attending will put your livelihood at risk.
 
Time said:
Surely you can pay 55 cent?

Tell them you are self employed and attending will put your livelihood at risk.
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hehe. Of course I can pay 55cent. I was more concerned about getting the correct address. i.e. address it to the courts registrar I presume.

Thanks for your reply. I'll do that.
 
I was once going to be on holiday when called so I told them this. Never got called again and that was about 5 years ago.
 
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