morning ladies,

sorry really have to get this off my chest before i burst into tears. DH is away skiing with work in France so cant even call him

I am a police officer currently on light duties and came into work this morning to a letter summonsing me to court in july. Baby is going to be at the least 5 weeks old. they have told me to come in for the whole week.
the solicitors office isnt even open yet for me to call them arghhhh

i'm so stressed out as at the moment i have to go by law. I have spoken to federation and the only way i can try and get out of it is for a letter from my gp to say it would be detremental to the health of me or my baby. and even then it is still up to the court. the last place i want to take my 5 week old baby when i will be breast feeding is a scummy court with a load of scumbag criminals.

worst case scenario i could have a c section - (never know whats going to happen) which means you cant drive for 6 weeks and hubby works 1 1/2 hours away from home. the court is about half hour away from my home. which potentially means i will have to get him to come to court with me.

And where the hell am i going to put my baby when i'm in the stand giving my evidence?

It took me a good 6 weeks to fully establish breast feeding with my dd so the thought of this is completely upsetting me.

this is completely freaking me out.........

so sorry for the rant

do you have anybody who can watch your baby for you? I wouldn't want my 5 week old baby around prisoners either..

I'm sure your doctor can write you a note stating that at that moment, you wont be able to appear. I'd believe that the courts would be willing to allow a video statement of the evidence to be presented, if they need you in there. You will be out on maternity leave. I'd think you could challenge this.

Good luck with this. Don't stress out over it right now!

I may be giving people too much credit but surely you can state your situation and they will be able to work around your personal situation. I'd at least try them. I'd also make sure your doctor knows...if they don't think this is a good idea they may contact the people necessary to make sure some changing are made.

I hope something works out!

god my maths is crap, if the baby is late it will be 2 1/2 weeks old!!

there are people that could help but i'm going to be breast feeding which wouldnt work as the baby would be half an hour away by car. i could potentially express but for a week???? it wont work. i could really get enough by expressing last time.

i cant get a letter from the docs until the baby is born. its so stupid! and video link would depend if they have the facilities to do it at the court.

i've just spoken to the solicitor and they have said to send my contact details so nearer the time they can contact me to hopefully tell me what day i am needed. I hope they decide i'm not needed at all but wnot know until nearer the time.

have just sent him an email expressing my concerns hopefully it will help. the annoying thing is this is from an incident that happened in 2007!! so i cant remeber the "finer" details anyway which are prudent to the case.

they "offender" was sent to trial but the case thrown out by the judge due to lack of evidence and its now being pursued down the civil route.....

I would go (if I had to) and cry the whole time - wouldn't be an act, I cried for about three weeks after having DD 24/7 - and change baby in the court, BF while in the dock etc. They'd probably just send you home! You can't be prevented from caring for your weeks old baby, esp if you are BF.

Hope it works out for you. Try not to stress just now, see what happens. Also, I want a job where I have to go ski-ing in France

If you're a witness for the prosecution/claimant then you should be able to go on stand first so you will know exactly what day you'll be there. Ask the solicitor if he's be willing to do that and if not put in a request to court. In all civil cases solicitors are supposed to state what days witnesses are not available so that it's not listed on a day you can't attend, so he really should have checked with you before.

unfortunaltely as a police officer they never ask us about unsuitable days and just book the court case regardless of what shifts we are doing, prime example this week i am doing an early shift today (8-4) a late shift tues (12-9) and then an ealry wed to give evidence at court 8-4 again. its a bloody nightmare sometimes. I have spoken to the solicitor and its quite a complcated case involving a fatal road crash but hopefully they are going to either just read out my statement or if i am needed to be cross examined in the box it they will try and arrange a day for me to come in rather than in for the whole week. to be honest i havent got a clue which side they have used our statements on as all the police officers involved have provided further statements to both sides now. having given evidence loads of times before i know there will be a lot of waiting around too.

just hope they will see sense, baby is going to be so little and i am not going to just hand it over to some random stranger to hold while im giving evidence either. i wont want it out of my sight. i really truely hate my job