What was your jury service like?

[Eastie77]

Obviously I don't want anyone to write anything too revealing or expect a response from anyone who is currently on a jury but I'm interested in experiences other MNetter's have had.

I completed jury service a while ago and recently met up for a coffee with one of the jurors I bonded with. The case dragged on and on and was fairly unpleasant (kidnapping, fraud) but I was impressed by both the defence and prosecution legal teams and I learned about the law so overall it was quite interesting. We were reminiscing about some of the 'characters' on the jury.

Personally I was a little a little taken aback that one of the jurors really struggled with English and I wondered how on earth she followed a lot of the legal arguments and therefore made a decision based on the evidence presented. I’m not saying for a moment that poor English = less intelligent but even native speakers on the jury had trouble following a lot of the arguments so I think she must have struggled. Before this experience I had always believed a jury system was very fair I came away thinking I prefer the system in other countries where a group of judges decide as opposed to 11 random members of the public seems who may or may not be able to grasp what is going on!

Have you read The Juryman's Tale OP - it's very interesting if you haven't.

I did jury service about 10 years ago and it was fairly uneventful - there was a lot of waiting round, I got called for a couple of minor cases and I definitely got to go home early a few days. I was actually a solicitor at the time, but not a criminal one, so I found the whole process fascinating from the jury's point of view.

What I do remember of the deliberations was how seriously the other jurors took the task and how each person's individual experience was relevant - whether they were a parent, a local, had had similar experiences etc etc. It made for a very rounded decision I thought.

Quite intense. And terribly sad. Two women from awful, broken backgrounds guilty of robbery and attempted murder. Got 7 and 10 years. Both lone parents with young children.

I don't want to do it again.

I did it just before Christmas and it was quite intense. I was called before the new jurors briefing had even finished, and found myself being sworn in about an hour after I had entered a court building for the first time! It was a completely different environment to the one I work in and I found the whole thing very interesting from that point of view.

The case was awful (historic rape & indecent assault) and we heard things about a toxic, abusive and violent family that truly shocked and upset me - in itself it was an education of how people outside my safe, middle-class bubble can live. By the time it got to court, so many people - adults and children - had been let down by society and systems. The criminal justice system was a blunt tool to deal with the result of it. Th

The jury itself was fascinating, diverse in every direction. There was one lady who should not have been on it (she didn't accept verbal testimony as 'evidence', she didn't see what good it would do to find the defendant guilty... mind-blowing really), but the process we went through to reach our verdicts really reassured me that they were the right ones. He went to prison for 8 years and will be on the SO register, so it's quite a responsibility. He was guilty, but it's a sorry finale to a totally wasted life of under-achievement, under-education, broken family and poor life choices.

Interestingly, we were unable to reach a verdict on the rape charge - so he wasn't acquitted/not guilty, but we weren't able to be sure that he had raped the witness. The CPS may try again, I don't know, but it's another statistic of a failed rape prosecution - before this case I had always thought 'rape is rape', how hard can it be to convict. But we couldn't convict, and I see it differently now.

I did it 5 years ago - got picked for one case which was a very basic he said she said and we acquitted on the grounds of not enough evidence.

What I found hardest was the judge being insistent that if any of us had even the slightest doubt then we must acquit! That was really hard because there is ALWAYS an element of doubt in any situation! At least, there is for me!

Fortunately I was released from the biggie (sexual abuse of a minor) that I was nearly picked for as it was the middle of my second week and case was expected to go on for 2-3 weeks. I was due to join family on holiday - they had gone without me as it was booked before the jury service date came up. Judge let me go.

A friend was about to be selected when the judge said - I know that juror - she can't be selected. It was her son's rugby coach!! She didn't recognise him in his wig and glasses

I did it a few years back and sat on two cases. One was a (thankfully minor) stabbing, one was a sexual assault that made headline news in our area when we found the defendant guilty. I’m glad I did it overall, I found the processes interesting and it was a really fascinating insight into the legal system.

I breathed a sigh of relief both times though that the cases I was involved in didn’t involve children. That was just my worst fear.

The one thing I found really unsettling is that the names of jurors are read out in court - I think in this era of social media it needs to change! That made me a little uneasy at the time as I have an uncommon name and one of the cases involved a violent family.

I hated it.
It was a domestic violence case that should of been straight forward but had a big twist in the middle, which made me wonder why any of us were there, when it was obvious she was not telling the truth!

I also hated all the sitting around and not being allowed out except for lunch. Even if your case was not going to be heard for hours

I got a jury summons about a year ago but I wasn't used. The only time I set foot in a courtroom was during the juror selection process for one trial, they call 15 names and from that a jury of 12 are selected - I was one of the three rejects. The trial was only estimated to be short, it was something about a racially aggravated row in a fast food joint. The rest of the two weeks I spent sitting in the waiting room reading.

Can you refuse jury service? What if you are self employed and going to court would mean that you lose your clients?
Can't afford to not work and have to start all over again.

You can not refuse because you are self employed. Courts have got a lot stricter on people trying to get off and deferring now.

One of the many risks of being self employed, along with getting sick or inured etc - that you need to have a contingency for both savings and insurance and do everything you can to mitigate impact on clients (which would vary depending on what work you actually do)

Boring - I sat in a freezing cold room for two and a half weeks waiting to be called and then was sent home.

Eastie77
It was a high profile, all over the news at the time case. Unbelievably horrific.
It always gets mentioned whenever something similar happens etc. and so for a time, I couldn't 'bury' it even though there was never ever any doubt at all we reached the correct decision.

I don't understand why you can't refuse, surely that would result in a grumpy juror not fully engaging?

As far as I know, the reason you can't refuse without a good reason is to ensure the jury is a fair representation of society. It used to be easier to get out of jury service, but juries were disproportionately made up of unemployed and retired people so they tightened things up.

My jury service was a long time ago now but was actually very interesting. It was a very high profile libel case. We were instructed not to read the newspaper coverage (no internet back then) and to try to avoid TV and radio news as well. When we delivered our verdict, the losing party stared intently at each of us on the jury as though committing our faces to their memory - it felt very intimidating. The judge advised us to remain in the jury room for about an hour or so afterwards, so we wouldn't be in the background of any of the numerous TV interviews that take place on the steps of the court after such cases.

Everybody connected with the court was very helpful to us and the judge allowed us to submit a couple of questions - he commented that he was surprised that counsel had not asked the same question at one point. He was determined that we should have all the information we needed to reach our verdict.
I'm not sure I'd want to do it again as it was very tiring but I'm so glad I had the opportunity.

Ah I see thank you. I just wouldn't want a disgruntled juror who was only there in body if it was me

Also hope I never get called

Mine was nearly 20 years ago and I don't remember anything about fellow jurors. I remember thinking how much is this all costing. I was called into the actual court room a couple of times but the cases were called off at the last minute so a complete anti climax.

The most boring 7 days of my life. Didn't sit on one case. Would rather have been at work!

It was 1999. Was told it was supposed to be 2 days ended up being 5. One of the women was adamant one accused was innocent but at sentencing he had a huge list of convictions and he was only just an adult.

Left me having nightmares.

I had 2 cases, money laundering (not guilty) and robbery (guilty). I was foreman and found delivering the guilty verdict quite distressing, obviously great justice for the victim, but the defendant was in prison on remand and he was literally just flushing his life down the toilet with one offence after another, in and out of prison.

Mum almost ended up on Rose West’s trial, but got a short fraud case instead. I’ve never done jury service but would be interested to do it one day.

I hated doing mine. Lots of sitting around, overpriced and unpleasant canteen . Our group contained two arseholes who were very narrow minded and obviously hated the working classes and also a boy a few years above me at school (he didn’t recognise me and I kept Schtum) who was known to have learning disabilities years ago and really struggled to understand much during the trials. Really think recruitment if jurors needs to be overhauled.

I've done jury device three times, the first one I was 19 did a lot of waiting about. Second was a drugs case lasted 2 weeks and the third time I was called to coroners court, really interesting but incredibly sad.

I enjoyed mine very much but had an interesting case and was with a good group of people. However I think there should be way of ensuring that jurors understand the legal arguments and are literate!! Mine was a high profile murder trial, I was very busy- no sitting around! I'd love to be called again

Juries should be abolished - if I was innocent no way would I trust a jury - though if guilty the 50/50 odds would be very appealing!

I have done jury service - what a farce! The lack of understanding of my fellow jurors was worse than I realised from being on the other side and clearly they had seen too many tv crime programmes (had to explain the assertions of the defence - which were withdrawn - had no factual basis - it’s not a us drama ffs!!!!). Was pleased though to be able to sway enough of the idiots to convict a fraudster - good to see the minority squirm when past convictions were read out at sentencing!

Abolish ASAP for the sake of justice in the U.K. - would save a fortune !

Rule of thumb if you are hearing the defence they are guilty as sin!