Jury duty... oops

Johnny Jukebox

Just finished a harrowing two week exam period to discover the jury summons that I received a month ago and completely forgot about was for yesterday.

Damn.

Now what - will I get fined the 63.50 or can I write a grovelling letter explaining my circumstances and offer my services at a later date.

Dub13

Your going to the slammer...


I am sure they will understand

Board@Work

Just claim your prejudiced against all races.. Got Homer off the hook

sickle

you could always go in tomorrow and beg for forgiveness. alot of people dont get picked on the 1st day so they might let you off,it happend to me a couple of years ago. i was really late so i went in and explained and they told me to come in on the tuesday and everything would be fine.

DublinWriter

Johnny Jukebox wrote:

Just finished a harrowing two week exam period to discover the jury summons that I received a month ago and completely forgot about was for yesterday.

Now what?

Now what? They'll send the ERU to sort you out. that's what!

Seriouslly...that's serious. I'd feign mental illness and get some Doctor/Preist to certify same.

I've never heard of anyone skipping Jury Dury before, but I'd guess the penalty would be the same for any comtempt of Court offence.

I'd start writing that grovelling letter now, or practice dribbling and ranting and claiming that aliens from the planet Cilit-Bang are attempting to control all our thoughts via the medium of cheese.

PHB

If you a college student you can't be called up for Jury duty

Big Ears

Johnny Jukebox wrote:

Just finished a harrowing two week exam period to discover the jury summons that I received a month ago and completely forgot about was for yesterday.

Damn.

Now what - will I get fined the 63.50 or can I write a grovelling letter explaining my circumstances and offer my services at a later date.

You could do nothing and if anything happens claim you never received such a summons .(of course this is a dangerous/lazy mans approach which could see you paying the fine )

kasintahan

PHB wrote:

If you a college student you can't be called up for Jury duty

You can and are. But if it's during term time they generally let you off if you write to them.

gandalf

moving this to after hours as its not really a political matter.

seamus

Go up and explain you had exams, and make up some bull**** story about not having returned home for 4 weeks because you were studying so hard. They probably won't give a **** since you wouldn't have been doing it anyway. Students are exempt.

Nuttzz

if (a major if) you were convicted the fine is €25, wouldnt worry about it tbh

Thumper Long

i'd do SFA and just claim such a letter was never delivered if they ever chase it up which they won't, and with the postal system here they couldn't possibly punish you :cool:

Naos

Conclusion: Write a letter, lie back and relax.

Worst comes to worst, you pay 63.50/25e (I dont know what the fine is).

jor el

Does a jury summons come by registered or normal post? If it came normal post then burn it and claim it never arrived if they ask. I'm sure they send far more than they need and expect a certain number of people won't turn up.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

MrBigglesworth

I got my Jury duty dates mixed up when I was called. Turned up, was told by the security guard that I was a day late and he said "Don't worry, I'll call upstairs and sort it out". So I left and never heard anything of it.

vector

PHB wrote:

If you a college student you can't be called up for Jury duty

Anybody can receive a "jury duty summons", there is no checking AFAIK when it it sentm the onus is on the recipient to apply to be "excused" on a number of grounds if they apply to him, these are are listed on explanatory sheets that accompony the summons.

For example an OAP (of a given age), a member of the gardai, a practising solicitor etc...

a full-time tertiary student also, this requires proof of status (photocopy of ID card showing when it expires) a nice angle is that even if you just completed your final year your card shouldn't expire september

zap

do they just use the list of people registered to vote? so if you don't reg to vote you don't get called

Maximilian

By all accounts Jury Duty is a complete pain in the ass. I'm glad I'm exempt from ever having to do it TBH.

EKRIUQ

Maximilian wrote:

By all accounts Jury Duty is a complete pain in the ass. I'm glad I'm exempt from ever having to do it TBH.

Ah the insanity clause.

DadaKopf

Look, I did jury duty. If you don't turn up for it, you're held in contempt of court and you receive a summons. If you weren't there, you won't know when to turn up the next day. Perhaps you were called.

Your mistake was not to read the summons. It lays out conditions under which you're entitled to be excused from jury duty without the need for a grovelling excuse - being a student is one of them, but you're not automatically excused, you must do this in writing.

I'd say go back and read your summons in more detail. I know how stressful college exams are, it's easy to toss the summons aside but essentially, it's the same as being summoned to court for drink driving. It seems like you have a legitimate excuse and you should definitely grovel, but don't be surprised if you get stung for the fine.

Kêrmêttê

I was summonsed for Jury Duty in Feb of this year.
You must attend or if you cannot, you phone the courts registrar office (number is on the summons) and explain your circumstances. They then tell you to send in a letter, doctors note, letter from college... whatever they require to excuse you.

On the first day the Court Secretary calls out everyone's name that was called for that day and ticks them off a list. He then calls out the list a second time so anyone who was daydreaming can have a second chance to shout out they are in attendance.

If you are missing from this registration type session you will receive either a fine for €63.49 or a summons to your local court.
It is in fact a crime not to turn up to Jury Duty without a valid excuse.

In the OP's circumstance... I would suggest phoning the telephone number stated on the summons re. queries and get everything clarified for yourself.
This is the office to call to get all your queries checked out. They'll tell you what exactly to do.

Can't see there being a problem because if you are in full time education, you are exempt from attending Jury Duty.

vector

zap wrote:

do they just use the list of people registered to vote? so if you don't reg to vote you don't get called

exactly

Lump

Jury.... Try appearing as a witness in a Crown Case, in the UK that is.

John

Zillah

vector wrote:

exactly

I was a juror, not just called but actually on the trial and I have never registered to vote.

vector

Zillah wrote:

I was a juror, not just called but actually on the trial and I have never registered to vote.

"I have never registered to vote"
so did someone else register you to vote then? (my dad registered me and I never asked him to, so it is possible)

Victor

vector wrote:

"I have never registered to vote"
so did someone else register you to vote then? (my dad registered me and I never asked him to, so it is possible)

The form for registering obliges you to register everyone at your address.

vector

Victor wrote:

The form for registering obliges you to register everyone at your address.

victor, there is no limit to your knowledge thanks

FatherTed

Just call them and explain you forgot. On the subject, people should do jury duty, it's your civic juty. Can't believe the amount of lazy people on here.

Capt'n Midnight

Here's a cunning plan. Don't show up until they send you a summons. Then demand a trial by jury. With a bit of luck the jury won't show up
YMMV


http://acts2.oireachtas.ie/zza4y1976.6.html

34. —(1) Any person who, having been duly summoned as a juror, fails without reasonable excuse to attend in compliance with the summons or to attend on any day when required by the court shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £50.

The list of exempt people including student with a note - I seem to remember lots more groups that in practise get exemptions
http://acts2.oireachtas.ie/zza4y1976.7.html

Tar.Aldarion

seamus wrote:

Go up and explain you had exams, and make up some bull**** story about not having returned home for 4 weeks because you were studying so hard. They probably won't give a **** since you wouldn't have been doing it anyway. Students are exempt.

students ain't not exempt!
my friend had to to it!
if you say pretty pls with prejudice against all races on top they mostly let you off^^

vector

The ultimate excuse is that you won't be in the county on the given day
(ie ryanair or northern ireland)

Tar.Aldarion

what about i'll be dead? that kinda works....

Our man in Havana

Victor wrote:

The form for registering obliges you to register everyone at your address.

Have you not got a right not to be registered to vote?

Mr.Nice Guy

Can you be called for jury duty more than once? Are you exempt from jury duty for a while afterwards?

Our man in Havana

Depends on the case, if its a murder or a rape your exempt for life. Usually its 3 or 5 years depending on the mood of the judge.

kenmc

I got around it by moving an operation I had booked into the week of the Jury duty.
That was handy. If I ever get called again I'll either get my employer to write a note that I'm indispensible/abroad/on a training course etc or just go in with a "bring back the death penalty" tshirt

Roddy23

No, that doesn't work getting your employer to write your indespensible.
Was gonna try it, but didn't bother, just attended it. Did it for a week, but there were people there who said they had tried to get off with a letter.
Its a handy number unless ye get picked, and it is a week off work.
Roddy

krinpit

The rules about eligibility for jury service in Ireland are set down in Section 6 of the Juries Act, 1976

6.—Subject to the provisions of this Act, every citizen aged eighteen years or upwards and under the age of seventy years who is entered in a register of Dáil electors in a jury district shall be qualified and liable to serve as a juror for the trial of all or any issues which are for the time being triable with a jury drawn from that jury district, unless he is for the time being ineligible or disqualified for jury service.

See here for more info: http://www.oasis.gov.ie/justice/jury_service/eligibility_and_selection.html?search=jury+duty

Trotter

This is directly from Oasis.gov.ie, I looked it up last year in a panic when I was called for dury duty during my exams in college. All I did was hand in a letter from the year head to the local court registrars office and I was ok. Mind you.. I did it before the case started though.

"The following persons may be excused as of right from jury service:

* Persons between the ages of 65 and 70 years.

* Members of the either House of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament),
members of the Council of State, the Comptroller and Auditor General, the
Clerks of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, a person in Holy Orders, a
minister of any religious denomination or community, members of
monasteries and convents, aircraft pilots, full-time students and
ship's masters

* Those who provide an important community service, such as practising
doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, vets, chemists, etc.

* The following persons if it is certified that their functions cannot reasonably
be performed by another person or postponed; members of staff of either
House of the Oireachtas, Heads of Government Departments, other civil
servants, chief executive officers and employees of local authorities, health
boards and harbour authorities, school teachers and university lecturers.

* Those who have served on a jury within the last three years or who have
been excused by a judge at the conclusion of a previous period of service
for a period that has not ended."