If you are an employee
The law protects your job and your pay while you are on jury service. You can ask to be excused in exceptional circumstances, but your employer cannot apply for you to be excused.
Tell your employer as soon as you can
When you receive your jury summons, tell your employer straight away that you have been called for jury service.
At this stage, you may not know how long you will be away from work. This depends on whether you are selected for a jury and how long the trial lasts. The judge will let you know what to expect.
Getting paid
The law protects people who are on jury service. By law, employers must pay employees who are undertaking jury service.
During any time that you are absent from work to comply with a jury summons, you are considered employed or apprenticed.
Your job is protected
info Your employer cannot penalise you
Your employer cannot dismiss you or disadvantage you in any way because you attended for jury service.
Your certificate of attendance
After your jury service is over, you can get a certificate of attendance to give to your employer:
- ask court staff for a certificate at the end of your jury service, or
- if you responded to your jury summons online, you can access your certificate online for six months.
If you are self-employed
If you are self-employed and can show that jury service would cause serious harm to your business, you can apply to be excused.
The Juries Act 1976 does not provide compensation to self-employed people for time spent on jury service.
If you are an employer
If one of your employees is called for jury service, you must continue to pay them while they are undertaking jury service.
You cannot dismiss or disadvantage an employee because they attend for jury service, and you cannot apply for them to be excused.
After their jury service, the employee can provide you with a certificate of attendance confirming that they attended court.
Get help
If you have a question about jury service, contact the jury office at juries@courts.ie.
