Sit on a jury for nearly two years.
Two years ago, four ordinary people were brought together by a letter requiring them to report for jury service. They, and eight others, became the longest-serving jurors in UK criminal history.
They sat for twenty months. That’s a helluva marathon. Frankly, I would struggle to find two weeks free. And, unlike the employed, I can’t expect clients to hang about while I sit in a court room for an extended period. And I couldn’t afford to lose the income – the amounts you can claim are significantly lower than my daily earnings.
These people were warned that the case could take six months and at that point would have had an opportunity to say that they couldn’t spare the time, but two years? Bloody hell!
The only ones who could, presumably, being the retired or the unemployed (or, at a pinch, public sector workers). Maybe this chap had a point after all.
I’m not sure that even the unemployed would be that keen. They would be tied in to doing the same “job” for years as the employed jurors at a fraction of the recompense.
In any case, JSA requires the job-seeker to be looking for work, which they obviously can’t be if they are locked into jury service with no end date, so I’m not sure how that squares anyway.
Those unemployed who actually do want to get back into work are having that goal put back by years – and possibly for ever if they are losing ground in an industry which is fast-moving and where being out of touch with, say, the new technology for long is a career-killer.
I got called after I had retired from self-employment, which was a relief as it would have been enormously damaging to my work. But I think you can claim actual loss of earnings not just expenses and allowances.
It’s capped.