For the benefit of anyone Googling this in the months and years to come, and since The Court Service don’t appear to understand the situation themselves; the Scottish legal system is operated independently of that in England and Wales. Thus, if you’re called for Jury Service in the Crown Court in, say, Bradford, but you’re currently resident in – hypothetically – Glasgow, the Service is not able to transfer your duty to a nearer court. Because – durr – Scotland has Sheriff Courts, not Crown Courts, and juries here are called by the Scottish Court Service.
…which is to say, I got excused.
I used to feel the same way about being excused, but you know, it’s the responsibility of more ‘educated’ citizens to serve.
I don’t believe I expressed any pleasure at being excused, and, indeed, I take my civic duty seriously. It’s simply that in my present circumstances, being unavailable for work for two critical weeks in mid-January could have been entirely catastrophic. Yes, I know employers have an obligation to make their staff available, but I’m not staff, I’m freelance. If I’m not available for the first two weeks of an eight-week contract, with a firm deadline at the end, that’s not appointed until the week before… well, then I’d fully expect that company to pick someone else, since I basically can’t do the job.
Unfortunately, the rules appear to have been written before freelancing became commonplace. For example, if one requests deferral one must list all the dates over the next twelve months on which one will not be available. Er… sorry, it doesn’t work like that. I don’t know what I’m doing in January… but at least I’m available should something crop up.
Point taken, and I wasn’t trying to criticize you anyway. It was a more generally aimed comment.