Cocker Spaniels and Jury Service

[Darwin]

Just got the letter calling me for jury service.  Might get a deferral or be excused as will clash with start of school hols. But an equally big problem will be sorting out Darwin.  I know several friends will offer to look after him during the day, but prefer not to ask friends, in case there's a problem which could damage our friendship.  If I do the jury service  do you think that I can claim doggie day care as a valid expense ?

[ollie nathan's mum]

I don't see why not. Give them a ring and ask, let us know the outcome.

[Pudding]

Good luck with the jury service .... my BIL had to do this once...
he parked his car in the car park and paid the ticket for 3 hours ....
it took a lot longer and when he came out he had a ticket for going over the time
so he contested it ... saying he was doing jury service and he could not come out to top up
his parking ticket .... it was £60.00 fine ... by the time he got a reply the cost of the ticket went
up to 120.00 and do you know they made him pay it....

[elaine.e]

I had to do Jury Service many years ago and they wouldn't pay anything towards any form of doggy sitting

I had 2 young adult Cockers then and I was working part time, so they were used to being left for 5 hours 3 days a week. I arranged for a neighbour to let them out in the garden at lunchtime and spend about 15 minutes with them, but apart from that had no option but to leave them.

Luckily I didn't have to be at the court until about 9.00am so I was able to give them a long walk each morning and although the jury service could have lasted a fortnight I was only needed for 2 short cases so ended up doing something like 3 full days and a couple of very short days.

OH did Jury Service in January and was only needed for 3 days, none of them long. The trouble is, you never know in advance how long they'll need you for.

[8 Hairy Feet]

 :005:I thought your dog had been called up!
xxx

[Pudding]

:005:I thought your dog had been called up!
xxx

OH STOP IT 

[Ninasmum]

:005:I thought your dog had been called up!
xxx

OH STOP IT 

  although probably quite a good idea as they are pretty good judge's of character 

To Darwin....tbh the few i know that have done jury service have ended up out of pocket 

[terwish]

Hey you think they won't call your dog for jury service .....

In America they called up a cat!

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/steve-dale-pet-world/2010/02/how-far-to-take-patriotic-duty-does-sal-have-to-serve-on-a-jury.html

Trish

[Darwin]

I'm sure Darwin could be a member of any Jury, yet he's got a soft spot for anyone who's upset or a potential source of food.

[*Jay*]

I got called up quite a few years ago when I had 5 dogs - I would have needed to put mine in kennels for every day I was there and I wouldn't have been re-imbursed. As it would have been cheaper to just pay the fine for not turning up, I decided not to go but never heard anything back from them anyway.

[Mybuddies]

One of my clients recently did 2 weeks jury and was able to claim back dog day care charges

so looks like one rule for one and one rule for another

 

[Darwin]

Have been told that if you just don't respond, they'll never know as the letters aren't sent recorded delivery etc, but is it worth risking it!  The dates clash with start of summer hols, and there's no point getting a deferral ( up to a year ) as there will always be something it clashes with, so going to hope that  I can get excused due to child care issues (my son is 11yrs old, but they don't need to know that).

Just trying to justify my child care issues .   I may have found someone who does dog sitting in her own home, sounds lovely, so going to meet her and her dog next week.  It wouldn't work if I did Jury service (she does live near(ish), same town as the court,)  I couldn't get my son to school, and get Darwin to dog sitter, and get into center of town, park and to the court by 9am.

Where we live all the kids from our village go to completely different secondary schools, so in his school (260 kids per year) there isn't another child in his year who lives in the same village. I'm not going to make my son get a public bus to school at 7am ( 20min journey at that time), when school doesn't start until 8.45am

Will let you know what happens. 

[NotanotherAlfie!]

 :005:Can you imagine the bedlam, 12 cockers sitting on a jury 

[Petepreston]

Is it any wonder most people try to avoid jury service? They don't exactly make it easy.

My wife was called for the week that she is in Houston for a conference - every year - and so the first time they sent the letter she showed them that she would be out of the country. They accepted that. The next year, they sent a call-up for the week after the conference, but this time she was staying for an extra two weeks to look after her office over there. We sent them the letter asking for dispensation and they replied asking to see the airplane ticket. Unfortunately they responded AFTER she was already over there so she sent them a copy of the used, outbound portion of the ticket. They actually sent her a letter saying that they accepted the reason. Well lucky for them, heh?

She was then called-up a few months later and spent the first two days turning up at 10am and being sent away by 10.30am. She happens to work 5 minutes walk from the court so on the third day she walked up there expecting to be sent home again, but got chosen and had to go into the courtroom - where they sat for 5 minutes and were sent away until 11am the next day. That day lasted until 3pm. The fifth day they spent 3 hours in court and were directed to return a verdict of "not proven" because the prosecuter didn't have any evidence. What a waste of time and money.

When you hear things like this you wonder how anybody ever gets justice. I have to wait over a year for my compensation case to get a date because t's low priority, even though they are apparently messing aroung with criminal cases. Oh, and if you're a famous person sueing a newspaper, you can bet you'll get a date within a couple of weeks. Grrr.

But, back on topic; I'd be very surprised to hear that you could claim any dog related expenses, but I'm keen to know the outcome.

[Rats and Dogs]

I *think* that some insurance companies pay for dog care in certain circumstances, but unsure if it covers jury duty, you could maybe contact your insurance company to see if they do cover it - worth a try.