Jury Service

Jury Service

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Client has asked me to verify the loss of earnings of his wife who attended jury service. W works as a supply teacher on a irregular basis. When W does work the employer takes her on their books and pays her as a temporary employee. W has never worked as a sole trader nor LTD, she's only worked as a contracted employee. W's day rate is 120 pounds but the court will only pay 60 pound a day. W wasn't contracted to work at the time of jury service but was looking for work. Last employer will not verify her availability for work nor her day rate for the purpose of making a loss of earnings claim to the court. H has asked me to verify W's salary for a loss of earnings claim. Is this permissible? W isn't a client of mine but all I would be doing is independently confirming her hourly rate based on previous payslips? Can you see any problems in doing this?

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By Andywho is fed up
23rd Jun 2012 20:02

Jury service

When reporting to the court all you can tell them is the trurth.

Based on the information available to you the W's daily rate as a supply teacher was £120 per day.   There are therefore three scenarios.

1. If she had no work booked for the time of her jury service then her lost earnigs are potentially nil. However :

2. If she had no work booked and did not let anyone know she was not available, then there might be some lost income if they contacted her, advised her of the work but she turned it down because of the jury service, or

3. She advised them that she was on jury service, work was available but she was never informed about it because she was not available.

Depending on which scenario applies should aid you in telling the court the true extent of W's potentail earnings during the period of her jury service.

This may not be to your client's liking, but it will be the truth.

Good luck

 

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By Anne.Onymous
23rd Jun 2012 22:13

ICAEW guidlines.

Is there an issue that she is not technically my client? This is going beyond my duty as I'm not her accountant. H on the other hand is a good client so I'd like to help if I'm allowed. If I state the truth as I must do, and as I always do, then it's just a matter of fact - "W was available to work and her day rate is 120 pounds". so I'm not clear if I'm in breach of any ICAEW representation guideliines.

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Replying to kevinringer:
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By neileg
25th Jun 2012 12:52

Mmm...

Anne.Onymous wrote:

Is there an issue that she is not technically my client? This is going beyond my duty as I'm not her accountant. H on the other hand is a good client so I'd like to help if I'm allowed. If I state the truth as I must do, and as I always do, then it's just a matter of fact - "W was available to work and her day rate is 120 pounds". so I'm not clear if I'm in breach of any ICAEW representation guideliines.

If you are doing this work for her, she's your client. Beware that this means that you need to invoke MLR proceedures at the very least. Who do you expect to allow you to act? It's between you and her.
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By ringi
25th Jun 2012 11:54

Some thoughts

Also work out how much work she got on average for each day she was available, so for example if she only got work on half the days the average income would be 60 pounds a day.

Doing supply teaching for one or two days month, will produce very different results then if she had been doing supply teaching for most days over the last few years.

There is also the factor of lost work and good will from having her phone turned off when in court, so it is not just the work she may have done at the time, but other work she may have lost.

Setting out a clear case in a letter may be enough to get court to see sense.

 

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