Jury Service

[BaxterBillions]

If I ever called up I'm just going to say that I'm prejudiced against all races, religions, genders, ideologies and age-groups.

 

[Herdling]

After thinking I won't be called for Jury Duty I have been!
I'm going to request that I'm excused from this, as I'm quite bad with anxiety etc, I've rung my GP surgery to request a letter from them
They've advised me to write a letter to my GP, requesting that they do this for me
Just wondering how I should word the letter to my GP?
Any other advice welcome

I did a three week trial at the end of last year. I was ok throughout, however when as we progressed towards the end of the trial the weight of deliberations were getting to me and on verdict day I was shaking, in fact many cried after the verdict was given. I checked on the case on the sentencing day which bought on a panic attack and another one that same week. It is strange not being able to talk to anyone during a trial. Mine was before Christmas and there was no joy in the court, obviously. Evidence given can be very heavy.

After the panic attacks I phoned the court because I thought they'd given us a number for support, but I couldn't find it. The court told me to call Samaritans, who were shocked that there wasn't more support for us.

Unfortunately I can't advise as to how to word a letter, but do try to get excused if you are worried about anxiety.

 

[bunnyboo]

My experience with jury service

• I got summoned during the second covid lockdown, and I knew loads of people from my constituency were being summoned. I believe this is because our area of Dublin is 5 - 10 miles away from the central criminal court. The lockdown rules at the time specified you had to remain within your own county.
• I was actually looking forward to my jury service lol. A minimum of 5 days off work, whilst being fully paid?* Fuck yeah. Starting everyday at 10.30am and leaving (at the very latest) at 4.30pm? Sure beats my 9am - 6pm job tbh.
• I showed my boss and his boss (the CEO) my summons and the whole situation was like something out of a sitcom. The CEO is not Irish and is not familiar with this part of the law and he asked me to skip jury service, threatened not to give time off etc etc. My boss who is familiar with the law had to take him aside and explain this a major violation of employment law. CEO then had to apologise to me and say that he respects my right to serve on a jury and he would never want to undermine that.
• I have generalized anxiety disorder, and when I arrived at the court on the first day, everything suddenly seemed intimidating. I tried my best to do my breathing exercises, but I ended up having a massive panic attack after about an hour of sitting in the jury room in front of a crowd of strangers. It's funny because I hadn't even been selected for a jury at that point, I just got overwhelmed by the environment and the presence of so many people. The panic attack got so bad, I ended up fainting. Also side note: mandatory masks during covid times were HELL when dealing with anxiety and panic attacks.
• The jury minder (usually a retired firefighter or paramedic) was very kind and arranged a private space for us to sit and talk. He even brought me a cup of tea and jaffa cakes lol. I then met with a judge who was also extremely sympathetic & kind and over a cup of tea, he excused me from jury service for 7 years due to my anxiety disorder. And thus my three hours of civic duty came to an end.
• I rang to see if I needed to follow up with being excused, but they said I didn't need a GP letter or anything. They saw I had a bad panic attack and that was enough for them. That's one thing I really like about Irish culture lol - discretion.

* I found out from a British coworker that employers are not obligated to pay employees on jury service?! That's ridiculous, expecting an employee to take a financial loss for helping the state and doing their civic duty? Fuck that. I can see why people in the UK are so keen to be excused from serving tbh. In Ireland, time spent on jury service is to be treated as if the employee were actually in work - AKA you are entitled to be paid while you are away from work and the company cannot deduct from your annual leave allowance.

 

[Sibz]

I got called up when I was quite young when I was about 20, and felt anxious beforehand, like I was a kid there with the grown ups by accident. But it's honestly not that bad once you're there, everyone I met found it interesting and didnt regret it. You'll spend most of your time waiting around in a room with a pool of other jury duty people just on reserve incase you're needed. I spent the first week doing that. There's tv's, books, magazines, you can bring your own, you get your lunch provided for you. You could do this for two weeks and never be in a jury and then that's it, you're free to go and get your expenses reimbursed for travel and time off work. If you do get put into a jury the majority of trials are fairly straightforward and over within a week or two.

 

[Suzesnooze]

My experience with jury service

• I got summoned during the second covid lockdown, and I knew loads of people from my constituency were being summoned. I believe this is because our area of Dublin is 5 - 10 miles away from the central criminal court. The lockdown rules at the time specified you had to remain within your own county.
• I was actually looking forward to my jury service lol. A minimum of 5 days off work, whilst being fully paid?* Fuck yeah. Starting everyday at 10.30am and leaving (at the very latest) at 4.30pm? Sure beats my 9am - 6pm job tbh.
• I showed my boss and his boss (the CEO) my summons and the whole situation was like something out of a sitcom. The CEO is not Irish and is not familiar with this part of the law and he asked me to skip jury service, threatened not to give time off etc etc. My boss who is familiar with the law had to take him aside and explain this a major violation of employment law. CEO then had to apologise to me and say that he respects my right to serve on a jury and he would never want to undermine that.
• I have generalized anxiety disorder, and when I arrived at the court on the first day, everything suddenly seemed intimidating. I tried my best to do my breathing exercises, but I ended up having a massive panic attack after about an hour of sitting in the jury room in front of a crowd of strangers. It's funny because I hadn't even been selected for a jury at that point, I just got overwhelmed by the environment and the presence of so many people. The panic attack got so bad, I ended up fainting. Also side note: mandatory masks during covid times were HELL when dealing with anxiety and panic attacks.
• The jury minder (usually a retired firefighter or paramedic) was very kind and arranged a private space for us to sit and talk. He even brought me a cup of tea and jaffa cakes lol. I then met with a judge who was also extremely sympathetic & kind and over a cup of tea, he excused me from jury service for 7 years due to my anxiety disorder. And thus my three hours of civic duty came to an end.
• I rang to see if I needed to follow up with being excused, but they said I didn't need a GP letter or anything. They saw I had a bad panic attack and that was enough for them. That's one thing I really like about Irish culture lol - discretion.

* I found out from a British coworker that employers are not obligated to pay employees on jury service?! That's ridiculous, expecting an employee to take a financial loss for helping the state and doing their civic duty? Fuck that. I can see why people in the UK are so keen to be excused from serving tbh. In Ireland, time spent on jury service is to be treated as if the employee were actually in work - AKA you are entitled to be paid while you are away from work and the company cannot deduct from your annual leave allowance.

In the U.K. if your employer isn’t paying you then you can claim from the court for travel, food, loss of earnings (upto a certain amount).

When I did Jury Service my work said they weren’t paying me so I ticked on the form they weren’t paying and claimed from the court but in the end my employer did pay me so I made extra money!

I suffer with anxiety and so I was nervous about doing Jury Service but a lot of it was waiting around to be selected and most days they let you go home early. I had two cases that both only lasted a few days (they were boring!). I don’t think I would have coped if they picked me for a case that was going to last weeks. 2 weeks was manageable.

 

[Bobby Chariot]

I did Jury Service over 20 years ago, nervous at first but found it interesting seeing how things work.
Plenty of others were in the same boat, nervous too.
I was maybe the youngest person in the Jury, we got taken to a local hotel in a mini-bus for lunch every day, the trial lasted just over 1 week & at that time I claimed my earnings back from the Court.
I would definitely do it again just to see if things have changed, worst thing I did was choosing Cannelloni for lunch & being a bit gassy on the benches in Court
The final summing up & verdict was pretty emotional, I still remember it clearly.
The thing to remember is that even if you are summoned for Jury Service you may not get chosen out of the dozens of others there, or that particular Trial may not even proceed.

 

[Piff paff puff]

After thinking I won't be called for Jury Duty I have been!
I'm going to request that I'm excused from this, as I'm quite bad with anxiety etc, I've rung my GP surgery to request a letter from them
They've advised me to write a letter to my GP, requesting that they do this for me
Just wondering how I should word the letter to my GP?
Any other advice welcome

Someone I know was called up and like yourself couldn't possibly attend due to health issues. My friend didn't write to his DR iirc, but let the Dr know how serious your problem is and how the trial would exacerbate it and how the thought of it is already affecting your day to day life through the stress of the impending date.
You can't be forced into jury duty, no one would want to do that to someone. It's easy enough for them to choose someone else as they have a database and even substitutes at the court on the day.(recently done jury duty myself). Just make sure you get the dr's letter to the court in the time frame.

 

[Piff paff puff]

There's a lot I want to say but I'll just make some points.
You won't ever be forced to go, no one can or would want to force you.
The situation is not how you imagine it to be.
The other jury members are anxious too, some more, some less.
It builds confidence knowing you helped make a decision to benefit law abiding people.
You are treated as a valuable and respected person, given comfort breaks, lots of nice food and drinks.
The judge was young, attractive and unstuffy
Oh, and take a book, even if you can't concentrate. You won't have to stare into space or talk to the person next to you when you are in the room around the table.

 

[Warpaint]

After thinking I won't be called for Jury Duty I have been!
I'm going to request that I'm excused from this, as I'm quite bad with anxiety etc, I've rung my GP surgery to request a letter from them
They've advised me to write a letter to my GP, requesting that they do this for me
Just wondering how I should word the letter to my GP?
Any other advice welcome

I'm not sure if it's true, but I've read if you state you have some form of bias that also gets you off.

 

[Kate1970]

I suppose it would be on how long you have known your gp, I would probably not do a long story an just put down with just saying how anxious you are an how it would worsen your anxiety, is anxiety on your record? Most GPS will be used to doing them

I've known my gp since I was a kid so he knows what am like, I've never been picked for jury duty thankfully but when I needed a letter for Disney/universal for me to not have to wait in ques I just phoned the reception an told them to tell him to type me a letter, he had no problem an only asked I put in a donation to a mental health charity in return which I of course done, I'd imagine yours would be able to do the same thing with jury duty

I phoned the Surgery this morning, just for advice on what to put in the letter
More less as you say, also told me it's up to myself how much I write etc.
Thanks

 

[Telly Fanatic]

A few year ago I got called up, and was up to high doh, and didn't want to go, so I phoned our Docs and explained to the receptionist, and she said she would speak to the Doc and I had to phone back,

so I phoned back and got told there's a letter for me, to not go.

I was on propranonol at the time for anxiety, maybe that's why I got a letter so quick?.

I sent the letter to the court, and they got back to me basically saying it's fine, I'm off the hook.

 

[Snippysnips]

After thinking I won't be called for Jury Duty I have been!
I'm going to request that I'm excused from this, as I'm quite bad with anxiety etc, I've rung my GP surgery to request a letter from them
They've advised me to write a letter to my GP, requesting that they do this for me
Just wondering how I should word the letter to my GP?
Any other advice welcome

I suppose it would be on how long you have known your gp, I would probably not do a long story an just put down with just saying how anxious you are an how it would worsen your anxiety, is anxiety on your record? Most GPS will be used to doing them

I've known my gp since I was a kid so he knows what am like, I've never been picked for jury duty thankfully but when I needed a letter for Disney/universal for me to not have to wait in ques I just phoned the reception an told them to tell him to type me a letter, he had no problem an only asked I put in a donation to a mental health charity in return which I of course done, I'd imagine yours would be able to do the same thing with jury duty

 

[Megansnarkle]

I'd love to do jury service, although my brother in law got called up and wasn't actually put on anything.

 

[Kate1970]

After thinking I won't be called for Jury Duty I have been!
I'm going to request that I'm excused from this, as I'm quite bad with anxiety etc, I've rung my GP surgery to request a letter from them
They've advised me to write a letter to my GP, requesting that they do this for me
Just wondering how I should word the letter to my GP?
Any other advice welcome

 

[ElChanguito]

I’m glad you put this on here, this has been a nightmare of mine for years! I hope they don’t make you do it.