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!

I've done it: one case which took 4 days and 1 case 2 days. Lots of sitting around but my whole jury got dismissed early when my dd got a cancellation appointment for an NHS Doctor we had been waiting ages to see! They were all very pleased. I found the clerk very sympathetic. I've been called twice since, once while having chemo ( was let off when I wrote) and once the first week I was die back at work after chemo ( ditto). My DS has just been called and he's very excited. My exBIL who is self employed was called and got a very famous long lasting case which I think was about 2 years. He simply tried to make up his wages by working weekends. He never said anything about it but it was obviously the case as it was always in the news

Eastie77 Sat 06-Apr-19 09:22:39

that is amazing grin Can I ask how your dad knew him??

My dad had done some work / was still working on the judge's house. He was a stone mason.

Please can I jump on here and ask if jurors are allowed out for lunch during the day? My husband is up in a month or so, over my birthday and he's said why don't I come and meet him in the city for lunch. I said I didn't think he'd be allowed out. He said I could just meet him with a greggs take out or something but I'm not sure.

Breathingfire it depends on your local courthouse, and also the stage of the case. Our courts had only a small canteen so we were allowed out to go and buy lunch if we wanted; but I don't know if they all do that. If we were on a hearing, the time of lunch every day varied, the Judge decided it was lunch when we reached a pause.

Once we were in the deliberation room, we were told we wouldn't be able to leave for lunch and that they'd bring in a range of sandwiches for us to choose from. Fortunately we only spent about an hour in the room, it was a unanimous verdict of 'not guilty'.

Thanks eggysmom. Our courthouse is close to a children's play area so I'd be happy to chill there until he was ready but I don't want to travel the 45mins to the city if he's not going to get out at all. It's not a huge deal, I think he just felt bad he'll be so busy around my birthday. He's self employed so will be doing a couple of hours work every night (he knows he's not supposed to but has to)

Our court let you out at lunchtime, there was a canteen if you wanted to stay.
You also need to be back by when they say, allow time for any security checks too when getting back into the court building. One juror when I was there was 10 mins late and got fined/told off by the Judge.

If you are on a deliberating jury, you cannot leave the room. We took a packed lunch.

We were allowed out but the times did vary and not allowed out once deliberating. Also worth bearing in mind that the defendant might also be out if they are on bail, as might be witnesses, family members who have been watching etc, a friend felt quite uncomfortable when they realised their defendant was behind them in the queue in Costa.

Neuf - I have lupus, so my everyday symptoms are serious chronic joint pain and exhaustion, made worse by sitting for long periods of time and by stressful situations. (When working at my computer, I get up every 20 minutes to walk around and try to ease the discomfort and rest when I need to.) I also have anxiety, as many people with autoimmune diseases do, which is made 100 times worse if I can’t control my own movements. I was able to get a letter from my consultant rheumatologist supporting my request to be excused from jury duty on health grounds. To be confined at Her Majesty’s Pleasure - even on the right side of the law - is my idea of absolute hell.

I loved my jury service.

It was nearly 30 years ago but it was at The Old Bailey and was IRA bombing case.... very detailed information and complex terms, but I really enjoyed it - lasted 4 weeks

I ended up being on jury service few yeaers ago for 7 weeks....my manager loved that! It was an intricate case involving drugs/county line/weapons and an attempted murder with lots of witnesses/ CCTV etc and there were 3 men accused (gang activity) so i had to sit through a lot! I found it quite tiring and draining but also see how important it is...

It was interesting in a way to see how courts run etc, but also very boring - which I am very grateful for as I would have hated to have a gruesome case. It was nice having the short days & short commute than my usual job.
It was quite a short case & uncomplicated, and in my belief should never have come to court. (We found the accused not guilty).
Didn't help with my own mis-trust in the police.
Was astonished how different barristers were in real life as opposed to TV/film. So slow, and not impressive at all!
It was interesting to meet 11 other people from different ways of life, but quite scary that you might have your fate in their hands - as a couple of the jurors were a bit bonkers in my opinion!
I was also surprised that although we were told not to google or talk about the case, a few of the jurors did openly between the rest of the jurors (it wasn't a juicy or interesting case either).

Sorry I didn't realised this was a zombie thread!

DH did it last year with a nasty case of domestic violence and child abuse.
He said one of the older men on the jury had issues with a hearing aid and secretly admitted he didn't hear half of what was going on.
I would love to do it.

I would absolutely hate to do this and hope I never get picked.

I was called for Jury service when I was 21. I throughly enjoyed the process although there was a lot of hanging around, presumably things are happening offstage so to speak. I actually ended up with a few cases as the first one was withdrawn after a morning of evidence, so we had to find them NG. We dealt with a racially-motivated assault and a couple of threats to kill. Both were found guilty but we did havw the odd person who thought that ths defendant "should be given another chance" (that's what the Probation Servuce is for IF they are found guilty....).

Thankfully, no-one tried to emulate 12 Angry Men ans and turn the jury. The court I went to is occasionally shown on the news as it's so close to Central London and has cases of national interest.

I'm doing jury service in april, dreading it!

I did jury service a few years back - interesting case, cultivation of cannabis.

We were told to be prepared for a 3 week trial, lots of delays at the beginning, then it transpired 5/6 defendants changed their plea to guilty, so now only one defendant was going to trial.

DD2 was only 17months and still breastfeeding a lot through the day. I stopped feeding her, developed mastitis and passed out in the deliberation room we were near a verdict, so all were sent home.

Came back the next day, reached a unanimous verdict. The rest of the jury were told to attend the next day for another potential trial (this was on a Thursday) but I was excused for the rest of service.

I'd love to do it again though - sans breast infection

Has anyone been asked to do jury service during covid? My DH has just been asked to serve in late September and we are wondering what social distancing is like in the courts and what happens if lots of people don't turn up if they have symptoms.

@sliverbirch
Yes I have just completed mine at the Old Bailey. This is actually the second time I've done it there.
I don't want to give away too much but it was a high profile case and quite stressful and intense especially at the end, but so worth it, it was actually really interesting and I loved every moment of it even the hairy bits.

They were really good with reguards to hygiene.
Upon entry, they only let in one at a time and wouldn't let you in until that person had cleared, and you had to use the sanitiser. Each tray that you put your bag in for scanning was cleaned immediately after use.
The food bit was closed so they couldn't provide you with food you had to bring your own. The only thing they could provide was a kettle that they would fill.
However our ushers brought us milk and the usual tea and coffee as well, and would fill up our water bottles.
You were allowed out for lunch but had to bare in mind the security/hygiene routine of re entering.

We couldn't sit in the normal jury seats as they were too close so we were spread out where the legal teams would usually sit.
We also couldn't use the normal deliberation rooms and another court was reserved for us to use as our base.
We still had our own toilet.

They provided hand sanitiser for each juror where they sat. We all had to sit in the exact same place.
When there were any extra documents they would be placed where we sat and left until the next day so it was safe for us to touch them.

One of our jurors was dismissed due to symptoms and we were asked if we were ok to continue and talked and made a decision together.
Basically everything was wiped and cleaned as there are different witnesses etc.

We did use a separate entrance once deliberatios started. Both had a one way system, the separate entrance was labelled and you just follows the signs. If you needed to use the lift it's one person at a time.
Most of the rest of the courts were empty, especially the smaller ones downstairs as they said it's just not possible to social distance in those ones.

Yes it means it may take a bit longer but it means everyone is safe.
They were really good and I was impressed.

Oh and where you might have to share documents before, we each had our own and also our own screens to watch any video evidence.

I think that's it!!!

No one more thing, sorry!!!
After we lost one of our jurors we were told that we could go down to 9 but each one is down to the judges discretion.

Last thing, really!!!

The waiting around was all done with distance and actually I got into the building about half 9 and by 11, was on a case, sent home ready to begin the next day.

@ellotreacle Did you have to wear a mask all day in court? I've got jury service next week, not been told anything about covid precautions.

@hollyhzd
No, if you wanted you to you could but it wasn't a requirement.