This information applies to England and Wales
Work commitments can be important and hard to break. Being busy at work isn't enough to excuse you from jury service altogether, but you can to ask for your service to be postponed until a later date. Postponing for this kind of personal reason is known as deferral of jury service.
Your work commitments may prevent you from serving on a jury at the time that you are summoned but won't prevent you from serving at another date. If your service is deferred you will be asked to confirm any other dates in the year when you won't be able to attend, so that you are given a new date that is convenient. Jury service can only be deferred once.
You can apply to have your jury service deferred by completing the section in the summons form called 'Deferral and Excusal'. If your request is accepted you will get a letter confirming the deferral and giving you a new date for your jury service. You cannot defer twice and must attend on the second occasion.
You can find out more about jury service at: www.direct.gov.uk.
Disclaimer, copyright and privacy policy, Copyright © 2012 Citizens Advice. All rights reserved.
