Jury service expenses are ridiculous

The thing is, there are times in our lives when it’s impossible and times when it’s easy. There should be a way of saying that this year is convenient or not. That way they wouldn’t waste time in people who can’t attend.

I served about18 months ago. I’m retired and it was no issue for me re time and money. But I was truly angry and shocked how little money could be claimed by those employed. It was ok if you worked for big company that’d make your wage up, and even nurses and firefighters etc. but for everyone else it doesn’t touch minimum wage. Those in gig jobs or self employed are literally subsidising the justice system. I was also infuriated that you can’t take in a thermos yet I was being charged in court cafeteria £2:75 for a mug of tea that I had to make myself with IHT milk. And with meal allowance £5.71 it didn’t even cover 2 cups of tea let alone any food. A complete rip off.

what annoyed me the most was the complete utter time wasting and complete disregard for jurors time😡. We lost half a day it took for defense team to re photocopy some printed documents for juror pack that should have been checked before case started. Literally all sat around in jury lounge for 3 hours having done just 15 mins in court thst morning, then being told we’d not get started again till 2pm. We lost another afternoon becuase a sound system packed in and they appear not to have IT support in courts. We lost another 2 hours one day becuase we had to move into another court due to more issues with heating. I could go on and on, the sheer time wasting, the short days worked in sitting in court actually hearing the case. I was 3 weeks on jury on 1 case which if you put time in court and deliberation end to end took just 30 hours. And all that bloody time people can’t go home, if they we were occasionally told we’d not get could come in late or go home early, the self employed or gig workers couldn’t go to their jobs anyway. I came from a rural village that ok me 50 mins to travel to so made no sense for me to go home and come back. The only thing they do pay fairly is petrol and parking costs, even though they push you to use public transport (not option for me -3 hours! )

I was really looking forward to jury Service. My overwhelming emotion was frustration. The sheer time wasting, money wasting. The frankly shocking lack of preparation or critical thinking by BOTH barristers🤯. Whilst justice may have been served, it is one huge massive waste of time and money for everyone but the legal staff. Especially when there’s such a backlog of cases to be heard.

id now try to find every excuse on the sun to never do it again. It took me many days to calm down 🥴🤣

I really don’t understand why there’s not a public petition to increase allowance for jurors, and recognise some parents of pre school kids need to defer, and ensure the self employed and gig earners can claim they’re entire loss of earnings back. It’s a con, off the backs of the very poorest and lowest waged. Those in professional roles will be compensated by their employer or can afford it on their earning. Pensioners like me are absolutely fine, even poorer pensioners can afford it.

I completed jury service less than 3 months ago. That daily allowance is for loss of earnings and childcare @Dinosaurus86 then you get £5.71 a day for food and they also pay you per mile travelled and they paid park and ride fees.

I deferred mine in July this year and had to give three other dates I was available and they had to be within a year of the original date. They then sent me a summons for one of the other dates I had given. This was the case for lots of others on jury service with me. You would probably be best ringing up and speaking to the court clerk to see if you can be excused as once you defer you will get summoned again and you can’t defer a second time.

It massively varies depending on where in the country you live. I think statistically you are much more likely to be called if you live in London, for example.

Do we really want jurors to be racist misogynists with poor critical thinking skills? Can a jury with such jurors ever deliver justice?

All these stories of women deferring because of childcare duties! The courts really should pay properly and/or provide nannies and/or within school hours hearings. The point of a jury is an even cross section of society. But they've managed to exclude working women! We need a presence to be heard, this is how so many vile men get away with vile things even after it's been to court!

I am total agreement the whole jury process needs a restructure.

Not just the cost to the public but also pulling 12 randoms off the street to decide if someone is guilty of a crime without any assessment of intelligence or thought process is madness.

My mum is retired and would have loads of time to do it. But she has absolutely no logical thought process and would be terrible.

I have never been called and out of all my friends and family only two of them have. It is strange reading comments from people who have been called a few times, guess the whole thing is totally random and if that is the case they must get a lot of people who ask to defer due to personal circumstances.

Sorry, OP, I voted YABU, not because you are, but because I don’t want to give Lammy any excuse to get rid of trial-by-jury as he is currently trying to do.

FWIW I was asked to do it but my old employer refused to let me.

I was then re-invited back within 12 months (it was cancelled before I got to attend).

So definitely defer but don’t be surprised if you are asked within the next few months.

If you have legal cover on your house insurance you may have cover for your salary while doing jury service. I just changed my house insurance and noticed it is covered on mine.

I agree!

I would love to do JS and there are so many people who can’t/don’t want to do it that you’d think there would be some sort of system that people can opt in/out of.

when you defer you have to provide 3 more dates (2 week slots) with 12 months that you can do.

if there was a longer trial starting when you are there you would have the opportunity to explain why it is impractical for you to attend more than the 2 weeks.

In Scotland you can only claim for a registered childminder - so my children are at nursery or after school club - but I couldn't get reimbursed if I sent them there the extra hours needed to cover jury duty.
Also if I used a childminder they only reimburse£6 an hour and a most local childminders charge more - and most require you to book - and with jury duty you may or may not be needed.
It's totally ridiculous, if they want a representative jury.
Although they excused me easily enough.

How do other countries deal with jury service?

Not all countries have jury trials, Germany and the Netherlands for example

If you make it onto a jury the hours are only 10 - 4. The first day or two you have to be there at 9 but if you don't get chosen they let you go early. If you haven't been picked for a jury by Wednesday they often send you home for the rest of the week.

I don't understand the comments about if you defer, you can't defer again. How does that work in practice? If you were called for a two week period and were due to give birth in that time for example it would be no good just saying you can't defer again. Surely that sort of thing happens fairly regularly?

You can ask to be excused due to past trauma leading you to be unable to be impartial.

If we go down that route then juries will not be representative of the population. How do other countries deal with jury service?

I wouldn't be able to afford it, either. Needs modernising.

Something else worries me more, though. Do you get a say in which cases you're assigned to? For example, it's a trial about noncery but you were a victim of that once, and really don't want to be exposed to it again. Are you able to decline? If not, fuck that.

I did jury service for the first time a couple of years ago, a month before my 76th birthday which is the cut off date, it was a historical sexual abuse case and from the minute we were told on day one what the trial would be about, he was guilty in the eyes of many of my fellow jurors. I still don't think he got a fair trial but I don't know what the solution is, people will always include their personal opinions and prejudices in their decisions.

Juries don’t really get sequestered I don’t think. Appropriate compensation incl for childcare should be provided but I don’t believe having young children should exempt a person from service.

Well , i managed to get my husband excused 3 years ago .
If you word things 'correctly' you can do it.

My colleague cares for her terminally ill partner with diabetes. She was panicking about Jury Dury so I told her to phone and ask to be excused. She was so thankful as she didn’t realise she could do that. She has been excused.

I know right. I think Juries are batshit, and a terrible idea, and they need consigning to the history books. Bloody awful that 12 randoms off the street - who can be as thick a whale sperm - and/or have no idea what that person has been through/what kind of life they've had, (and have nothing in common with them) can decide on the fate of a person's entire life.

You will get sexist women who hate men, sexist men who hate women, people who hate people of colour, people who hate people who are gay, people who hate people who are working class, (or badly educated, or a bit common,) people who hate people who are a bit posh etc.... Some people in the dock may come across as arrogant and rude, even if they are innocent, and the jury will be swayed and say they're guilty because they don't like them.

Fucking glad I have never been in trouble with the law and had to face a jury!

DH thinks they're a good idea, as you get judged by a group of your peers - with no prejudice. Utter bollocks he speaks. None of them will be 'my peers,' and there absolutely WILL be prejudice. This is one thing him and me will never agree on.