Truckulent:
Sounds a plan but I’m not so sure this would work. Many people run businesses but all called for jury service won’t all get away with saying the business would collapse…You also receive appropriate compensation so the argument you’d lose money doesn’t work.
They will compensate him for day 1 but what if at 6pm he makes the call and is told he is not needed, now harry has to find work at short notice for day 2 which they will not compensate.
Every time ive been ive lost wages out of it because ive have been fannyed about with this 6pm phone call, the cap on wages is £129.91 per day that is for paye or self employed, a lot of people will go over this.
My company pays me 9 hours basic they refuse to fill in the forms so i lose straight away as i normally do 10-12 hour shifts, so the only thing i can claim is petrol costs from the court.
The last time i went, day one i got 9hours from my company i had to tell them by 4pm if i could work the next day or be planned out. I took the gamble and said i would get called up - come 6pm i was told i wasn’t needed. Lost a days shift and no compensation from the court for day 2.
Truckulent:
Sounds a plan but I’m not so sure this would work. Many people run businesses but all called for jury service won’t all get away with saying the business would collapse…You also receive appropriate compensation so the argument you’d lose money doesn’t work.
They will compensate him for day 1 but what if at 6pm he makes the call and is told he is not needed, now harry has to find work at short notice for day 2 which they will not compensate.
Every time ive been ive lost wages out of it because ive have been fannyed about with this 6pm phone call, the cap on wages is £129.91 per day that is for paye or self employed, a lot of people will go over this.
My company pays me 9 hours basic they refuse to fill in the forms so i lose straight away as i normally do 10-12 hour shifts, so the only thing i can claim is petrol costs from the court.
The last time i went, day one i got 9hours from my company i had to tell them by 4pm if i could work the next day or be planned out. I took the gamble and said i would get called up - come 6pm i was told i wasn’t needed. Lost a days shift and no compensation from the court for day 2.
I didn’t say it was fair, only hard to get out of!
I was called for Jury service but got out of it very easy due to fact I was pregnant & baby due that week but was also married to a RMN which made me exempt
All you need to make money out of it is a straight-laced Transport Manager who’ll go out of their way to dock your pay, and put the details in writing.It is the “putting in writing” that makes Jury Service pay - and is thus the very most important detail to get right before you attend for your first day.
You usually get quite a few weeks notice of the due time to attend court. In this time, it pays to cram as much overtime as you can get, and provide an (ideally) 3 month average of high earnings, that of course includes a lot of overtime, weekends, & nights.
Then you get your TM to write you a letter stating how much money you will DROP compared to your prior 3-month average should you be excused to attend for Jury service during the lawful 2 weeks I was told you have to be made available for.
In my case, the difference between a flat week and a crammed week was about £262 per week gross on my pay. This was in 1994 btw.
Your expenses paid by the court will be that £262 PLUS travel PLUS lunch expenses on top - not bad for a single guy with no dependents!
You gain because your money is made up with FREE MONEY - that is, I would have paid tax on the £262 had it been standard overtime earnings etc. but when paid by the court, it is a tax-free cash payout expense (NOT a “reduction on your tax code” like wages expenses we might get nowdays)
You are thus being paid more than a crammed week NET whilst effectively attending for duty on a 09:30-04:30 basis. An easy fornight of earlies for crammed nights pay - C’mon folks, if you can’t make money out of THAT, then you really need to read the handy leaflets they give you to read whilst in the “juror’s waiting room” whilst you wait to be called.
My experience of it all was so good that I’d love to be called again - BUT I’m not sure how it all works in the agency/non-staff world (that I am in now) compared to the full timer I was back in 1994.
I would imagine that it will be harder to get the level of expenses signed off by myself/agency/umbrella than my then TM would be able to put through without a second glance by the court?
For once, I have to admit there is a real possibility that an umbrella firm might become very useful here for once, as they should easily be able to explain to you out of what you already pay them just how much you can cram into that claim, and also more importantly - how to maximise it to start with all totally above board.
Alternatively, I may have already explained quite enough for you all to now know exactly what to do without anyone needing to consult anyone else here… This assumes that the system has not changed much over the years of course!
Called umpteen times in a decade? - They must have a pretty small pool of “lawful members of the public, upstanding and true” if they keep getting around to the same old people THAT quick I would have thought - Must be true what everyone says about Glasgow I guess…
ROG:
Helps if you have something like an ABH from decades ago - the system tends to disregard those with any sort of criminal record from my understanding of it
There’s you’re answer then, go and stab someone in the face with a broken bottle and you’ll never be called again. Easy
I think i might have to get a legal advice and sue for lost earnings if it happens . i think there is only so much you can claim for per day and it would no way cover what i would lose
Before Tesco took me on as a full time employee I had to do a short stint as an agency driver there and was employed by ABC in MK, the boss ‘John’ was areal good guy and when I was called for jury duty he wrote a letter saying I was earning an average wage of 450 quid a week and the court paid it for two weeks as I sat at home on stand by, paid holiday then
Jury duty in the USA is one god reason I prefer to remain a green card holder than a citizen, all you get here is a meager daily amount that couldn’t feed a dog. I see men go bust because they are on a jury duty call for months.
Also US citizens are treated like unfairly by the authorities in lots of cases.
Isn’t that because being Self-Employed is far more widespread in the states than over here?
We LIKE our PAYE system here don’t we?
From what I’ve seen of the self-employed world, it’s just a big excuse for employers to do jack, and get out of anything and everything, especially adequate insurance and paying their own stamp even.
ROG:
Helps if you have something like an ABH from decades ago - the system tends to disregard those with any sort of criminal record from my understanding of it
There’s you’re answer then, go and stab someone in the face with a broken bottle and you’ll never be called again. Easy
Thats all just a little excessive. Just punch a random person. No need for permanent disfigurement.
GETTING:
I think i might have to get a legal advice and sue for lost earnings if it happens . i think there is only so much you can claim for per day and it would no way cover what i would lose
ROG:
Helps if you have something like an ABH from decades ago - the system tends to disregard those with any sort of criminal record from my understanding of it
There’s you’re answer then, go and stab someone in the face with a broken bottle and you’ll never be called again. Easy
I got fined £50 for turning around too quickly with one of those whippy magmount CB ariels in my hand which connected with the arm of the person behind me leaving them with a bad mark on them - result = ABH
I would have to refer to my CRB to see how far back it was but its well over 25 years ago = no jury service for me
nsmith1180:
Where do you put the tacho card in the Jury dock?
If you lift the judges robe theres a little crack around the back, if its a lady judge theres two cracks , use the same one as you would on a male judge , as your not double manning. Hope this helps
Some of the arguments about “getting out of jury service” when full time employed sound a bit like turning down wages paid in tenners - “because you wan’t £400 in twenties and not £500 in tens”!
i’ve never been asked to do it, and i doubt i ever will.
but if i was i’d claim everything i could, then after a few days i’d take the ■■■■ and get chucked out.
limeyphil:
i’ve never been asked to do it, and i doubt i ever will.
but if i was i’d claim everything i could, then after a few days i’d take the ■■■■ and get chucked out.
You would take the ■■■■,and be had for contempt of court and thrown into jail for a month.
You can claim ANY out of pocket expenses. Because the money you are paid is tax free, and the money you are losing is gross, you’ll gain by whatever tax difference was payable on the money you lost.
Self employed people are notorious for “trying to get out of their public duties” but be warned that to evade jury service is an offence. Avoidance only has so many acceptable excuses, including “I’ve already booked my holiday” but NOT including “my boss won’t release me for the legally required two weeks”. Self-Employed people are their own boss, so they have no excuses to duck the draft therefore, and they also find it hard to quantify actual expenses without submitting full blown accounts to the court for review prior to expenses being signed off.
You can claim ANYTHING if you can show “what you got paid before” and “Now you won’t be paid” as well as “costs I didn’t occur until attending court” compared to “my regular commute & other costs associated with my normal working job”.
It ain’t rocket science. Just play it straight down the line, and you’ll be rewarded. Try and fiddle the system, and you’ll be looking at a “contempt of court” rap at very least I should think.
It would be interesting to find out what happens with agency staff who won’t be paid at all when they are at jury service. By rights, the court should once again make up an “average wages per week” based on the 3 months prior to your service. As I said in a previous post therefore, “whack the overtime on the runup to the service” which you should have been given some month’s notice of.
Nice to know my record from my past keeps me out of this it proves to be useful for something. I wondered why in my 28 years of life I have never been asked, well now I know why
but was also married to a RMN which made me exempt 
