Being called as a witness, do you get paid time off work?

rubadub

I got a voice mail from the gardai saying I would be soon recieving a summons to appear on court as a witness. I am 99.9% sure I will not even be called upon, and have even been told the hearing probably will not happen that day. When giving a statement the gardai said it was unlikely the case would go to court and highly unlikely I would be called to court.

This will be 2 half days I have to take off. Do work have to let me off? can I argue that I cannot get the time off work?

What about the summons? I thought a summons must be handed to you in person, I am rarely at home so it may be unlikely it will ever be served to me.

petes

rubadub wrote:

I got a voice mail from the gardai saying I would be soon recieving a summons to appear on court as a witness. I am 99.9% sure I will not even be called upon, and have even been told the hearing probably will not happen that day. When giving a statement the gardai said it was unlikely the case would go to court and highly unlikely I would be called to court.

This will be 2 half days I have to take off. Do work have to let me off? can I argue that I cannot get the time off work?

What about the summons? I thought a summons must be handed to you in person, I am rarely at home so it may be unlikely it will ever be served to me.

A summons has to be handed to you I think. I was called as a witness before for three days. I think I was paid by work. Saying that the defence solicitors called me up so I was able to claim for my travelling expenses, days of work and expenses.

Oh and even if you are not called upon you are required to be there.

http://www.algoodbody.ie/news/load.asp?file=PUB:1241

Took ages for my expense claim to be processed. Still was a nice tidy cheque when I got it.

Random

I guess you should start by verifying the voicemail with your local Garda station.

Lenny

lol, true that aswell

Stirling

On service of the summons it doesn't neccesarily have to be handed in person to you as a summons which is sent by Registered Post is also counted as valid service.

Lenny

yea i think it does as my mate got called for jury duty an the eltter was given by a guard at the door

Mr. Presentable

They have to let you off, they have to pay you. As an upstanding citizen, ahem, you have to attend and save/nail the perp as appropriate.

aidan24326

nipplenuts wrote:

They have to let you off, they have to pay you. As an upstanding citizen, ahem, you have to attend and save/nail the perp as appropriate.

That's true. Your employer has to give you paid time off for this, for as long as you're required by the courts/gardai, they have no choice. It's the same for jury duty. It's outside of your control so you can't be penalised for it.

imeddyhobbs

when a case is up in court the local garda will go to all involved and ask about costs,guilty parties will be instructed to pay these before their next due cort date by the judge,you will not be asked for wages recipets,fuel-transport,boarding,keep costs reasonable,you wont make money out of going to court.

Civilian_Target

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that:

For jury duty: You have a civil obligation and your employer must pay you, under the terms of your PAYE for all the time you're off (or if you're self-employed the government gives you some sort of standard rate)
For a summons: Because you volunteered to be a witness, it's not a civil obligation and therefore your employer doesn't have to pay you. You can take holidays or sometimes unpaid leave, and if you're witnessing for someone like the gardai they usually give you a stipend to cover your day off.

petes

Civilian_Target wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that:

For jury duty: You have a civil obligation and your employer must pay you, under the terms of your PAYE for all the time you're off (or if you're self-employed the government gives you some sort of standard rate)
For a summons: Because you volunteered to be a witness, it's not a civil obligation and therefore your employer doesn't have to pay you. You can take holidays or sometimes unpaid leave, and if you're witnessing for someone like the gardai they usually give you a stipend to cover your day off.

I didn't volunteer and I got a summons. If you don't go to court after getting a summons you can be in contempt.

rubadub

I didn't volunteer and I got a summons.

How was it served to you. You were called as a witness?

Registered post will not work with me either, nobody is at home to sign for it, and surely for a summons the registered letter must be signed by the person it is addressed to. If I get a notice saying there is a letter in the post office I cannot go there unless I get time off work, so I will not go. What will happen in that case?

petes

A court official physically handed me the summons. He came to my home address. I was more of a character witness.