Posted on 04/14/2021 8:55:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A breastfeeding new mum said she has no choice but to take her eight week old baby to court - after her request to defer jury duty was denied.
Zoe Stacey, 36, was told giving birth to baby William just two months ago is not an excuse not to sit on a jury.
She attempted to appeal and change the dates - but was told she’ll be expected to turn up to Winchester Crown Court next month.
Full-time mum Zoe said she’s still breastfeeding - so will have no choice but to bring baby William into the jury box.
She said she’s understandably unwilling to leave him at home for such a long time, due to his young age.
Daily Echo:
The mum-of-two from Fair Oak, who suffered a number of illnesses after birth, said: “I breastfed my first son until well after his first birthday and I plan to do the same with William.
“Having gone through everything I did on top of breastfeeding, obviously people who choose to feed also have the right to be granted parental leave.
“Even just being sleep deprived, I wouldn’t want people giving a judgment on me in a trial as it’s really difficult to give your focus to anything in that first year."
She added: “I had to give them several dates within that time frame where I would be prepared to serve for ten days.“I don’t want to leave my child for ten days; a night is the longest I left my other son.
“We recently relocated from Hertfordshire to Hampshire and I don’t have a massive support system to rely on.
“I’m just a bit surprised they are pushing it so much, I really thought that being a new parent and breastfeeding as well would be grounds for exemption.
“I can’t believe I have to fight for it. I thought there’d be more common sense and compassion."
“Not only is breastfeeding an issue, I have a child and another three-and-a-half year old child, there’s also the lockdown and the situation with childcare.”
Poorly William then got tongue-tie and both suffered thrush from the antibiotics, and her husband Peter Stacey, 36, had to look after their other young son Thomas, three.
She received a letter on April 2 summoning her for jury service on May 24, and she immediately went online to apply for exemption.
Her request was rejected, and she was initially offered the opportunity to defer her jury service to another date.
But ten minutes later, she got an email confirming her court date in May at Winchester Crown Court.
She said: “There’s no consideration. It feels like a bit of an automated ‘computer says no’, rather than reading what I put they just rejected them.”
She searched the internet and found that plenty of other new mums had had a similar response to her when requesting exemption from jury service.
Daily Echo:
She said: “It’s not consistent; a lot of people have been excused and some people haven’t even been deferred.
“What I’d really like to push for is like in Scotland where a breastfeeding woman who requests an excusal shouldn’t be refused.
“They need a policy down here. It seems to depend on who reads your email. It’s very hit and miss.”
Zoe appealed the decision again on Saturday, but if this fails she plans to take baby William into the jury box with her and hopes the judge will see sense.
The maximum penalty for not attending jury service is £1,000 which must be paid within 28 days, otherwise 14 days’ imprisonment is imposed by default.
Exhausted Zoe added: “When I’m feeding Will in the middle of the night and I’m sleep deprived it’s going through my mind.
“I understand it’s a civic duty and I think it’s really important, I just don’t think it’s realistic to request parents to do it in the first year, especially during the pandemic.
“We have been isolated, no socialising, not a lot of support around and it’s been very difficult compared to my first child where we had other mums we were with and had groups to go to.
“It’s been stressful for a lot of people with what’s been going on. You throw in a child and sleepless nights and being asked to serve on a jury when it’s not a nice time.”
The Jury Central Summoning Bureau, part of the UK government, has been approached for comment.
Prosecution or Defense, there’s ZERO chance I want an irritated Mom in the jury box. Just...NONE.
That’s not very Christian of the Court to refuse any accommodation. Wild Guess who keeps refusing her: Some single man who has never had kids and supports zero population growth.
Just to get even, she should report for Jury Duty - Topless!
That’ll teach’em.
Yep, don’t mess with the momma bear...
Stop complaining. Bring the little one, all the little ones. They can play around you while you nod off. Defendent’s attorney will make your point for you.
Like in that one Chris Rock video where he tells people to leave their angry woman at home if they don’t want to get beat by th police.
The way I read the headline I thought someone was SUING an 8 month old.
I figured it was some lefty lawyer.
It does read as though a newborn has been named as a Plaintiff in a lawsuit, due to refusal of the newborn to
‘negotiate’.
In New Jersey, at least, being the fulltime caregiver for a minor child is a valid excuse from Jury Duty.
The kid will be a fine lawyer someday.
Buck up buttercup. Having a little carbon footprint doesn’t absolve you from your civic duty.
You'd get more sympathy from a computer than a bureaucrat.
In a strange coincidence, every single time I’ve had surgery in the past 13 years (4 times), I’ve gotten a jury summons shortly before it. The surgery got me out of it. I have a surgery coming up next month. I’m wondering if I’ll get another jury summons soon.
I think you have it backwards. Environmentalists are against people having children.
That leads me to a question: Would you rather do jury duty or have an operation?
In the British system, as I recall, they don’t allow all the juror challenges by the lawyers on both sides. If they need a dozen people for a jury, they call in 14, and pretty much unless you’re related to the defendant, you’re going to be on that jury.
I was always excused from jury duty when I said I had young kids at home. After that, I’ve gone in every time I’ve been called (county and Federal) and never tried to get out of it. Only once did I come anywhere close to being seated. A young woman asked to be excused because she was a minimum-wage hourly employee. Her employer would give her the time off, but she wouldn’t get paid. The trial was expected to run 1-2 weeks. She said she wouldn’t be able to pay her rent if she was on the jury (jury stipends here were $5/day). The judge said no. Who would want that person on the jury - she’d be worrying the whole time about where she was going to live. The prosecutor kicked me out before they questioned her, so I never knew whether or not she ended up serving.
Barrister. In the UK system there are two classes of lawyer. Solicitors who do things like contracts, wills, etc. and Barristers who argue in court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrister
May I suggest that you either include a sock tag or get off free republic, as it appears you along with every other leftist is doing everything possible to deny biology and make children wards of anybody except their own parents.
There’s so much being censored these days, but starting in the late 50s, so it was all of the information showing the damage to babies from bottlefeeding, including asthma from undersized sinus cavities. Bottlefeeding changes the shape of actual bone structure.
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