I am five months into my PhD and have just had a letter notifying me that I may be selected for jury duty in the Scottish High Court or Sheriff Court in the next twelve months, with just a few weeks' notice. Normally I wouldn't mind doing it but with just two years and seven months to finish the PhD I really don't want to get dragged away from my work right now. Reading the notes it looks like I'm not eligible to defer or to decline, is there anything I can do at all?

...or am I lucky? There's a chance I could be off work for the usual 10-14 days, and both the Sheriff Court and High Court are near my home and near the lab I work in, so I won't need to commute, but I'm concerned that I'll be selected for a trial which lasts a bit longer. I could defer for 12 months, but there's also the opportunity to spend part of my PhD abroad in 2013 and that would be an opportunity too good to miss.

I'm going to talk to my supervisor about this tomorrow, does anyone have any suggestions for what we should be discussing?

======= Date Modified 14 Mar 2012 22:00:09 =======
Unless you're engaged in research or have a background in something that could impact on your ability to be an impartial juror (say a degree in law etc) you'll most likely have to do it if called. It is difficult to get out of as I know of sole traders who have had to close up shop and do it (but that was years ago). I think if you're abroad it should be OK (as you couldn't put your life on hold for a possibility and it would be difficult for you to drop everything and come back) but check that out now.

I'm in lab-based biomedical research but I'm still not sure that would excuse me, especially as it's basic rather than translational. Also If I absolutely have to do it I'd much rather get it out of the way in the next twelve months and then not have to worry about it for the following five years, and be safe in the knowledge that I wouldn't have to abandon this opportunity for work with our overseas collaborators in 2013!

Knowing nothing about Scottish law isn't helping (I'm originally from Wales and lived in England for a long time) but I'm just hoping I get a relatively straightforward case which doesn't drag on...

I'll PM you

Ta- I'd give you a Helpful User vote but it looks like I can only do it once per user! Hope you get that fifth star before too long ;)

No problem. The main thing you need to find out is what is the situation if you're aboard. There's bound to be something, somewhere about this.

======= Date Modified 15 Mar 2012 09:31:46 =======
======= Date Modified 15 Mar 2012 09:30:37 =======
While I'm not in Scotland I was called for jury duty during my PhD. The powers that be in my department offered me a letter stating how vital (sic) I was to my department but I declined. I went along but as the defendent didn't bother turning up, we were excused and so it naturaly worked out well for me. I had been prepared to take readings etc with me if it did turn out to be a long one however. tbh, I would imagine you would have a better chance of being excused if you were writing up. I'm not saying of course that first year isn't important but I doubt outside audiences would consider it such. See what reaction your supervisor has when you tell him/her

(Sorry for all the edits; I'm a bit addled this morning, hence the constant edits :-()

Hi Flack. I have a suspicion you and I maybe at the same University since your plight sounds very familiar to me. A similar thing happened to me towards the end of my second year and also halfway through my final year (onlt 7 weeks left for me). Basically the first time I received notification that I MAY be called a few months before I actually was called I was not exempt from being called. I did go to the High Court along with around 60 others. Once I was there the Clerk informed us that she had more potential jurors than she needed and so she asked how many people would prefer not to be selected. About a third put there hands up, and they were allowed to go home there and then. For the remainder of us, she then asked if we were available for a 10 day period and whether we had any connection to the defendants in the case or the incident itself. If anyone had a genuine reason why they would not be able to commit for 10 days, then with her permission, they too were allowed to go home. The rest of us that remained (about 30) were given a number to ID us and a ballot was held (a bit like a raffle) in the presence of the judge and the lawyers to select the 15 jurors. Those note selected were allowed to go home by the judge. The second call I had, I was eligible for exemption because I had attended only a year beforehand. So all in all, it wasn't a big issue in the end. I also believe that if you were to be selected for a period of time, then the University would be obliged to cover your costs for the period you were away without penalty to your circumstances - check with the Supervisor.