A question about jury service.

[KitKat1985]

DH received a letter in the post today calling him up for jury service in a few weeks. I don't know anyone that has ever been called up before so I don't know a lot about the process, and I don't think he does either. One thing we got to hypothetically wondering (in part because of having 2 young DDs - both at nursery - who seem to bring home every cold and tummy bug in existence) is what happens if you are halfway through a case and one of the jurors comes down with a tummy bug or something? Does the whole case have to adjourn for a few days? I assume the case wouldn't be able to carry on if one of the jurors was absent?

No they have back up jurors, so they can swap them in, or they can just lose a juror.

I don't know either but I would like to know too. I've never really thought about it.

Or prison if you lie about being unwell

www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2076997/amp/Juror-Matthew-Banks-jailed-Christmas-phoning-sick-halting-trial.html

I’ve done jury service. No one was sick but we were told that if we were we had to have medical proof, a medical certificate for the judge, and to inform the Clerk of Court immediately.

On a separate jury someone didn’t turn up on time and it was very serious. Someone was sent to the house to get them and they had to stand in front of the judge and get told off and everything!

In Scotland we would just carry on. We don't have back up jurors. Unless too many people got sick, then they would have to adjourn the case.

Criminal barrister here. It totally depends on severity of illness and how long a trial it is. Trials can lose jurors and go ahead or can be adjourned if a long trial and short illness and convenient in the running order of witnesses etc.

I was once in a 6 month case several months into it and we adjourned for 2 weeks as a juror’s mum had died and we had already lost juror to something else.
Judge was very lovely with her checking whether she did feel able to come back at all or so soon. All the time aware a retrial would cost huge amount and throw a lot into chaos not least for defendants who had been in custody waiting trial most of whom would ha e been flight risk of given bail etc. The juror was adamant about continuing if possible.

Vast majority of cases last a few days only and A lot don’t proceed etc. It’s not uncommon for someone in the pool not to be used for the majority of the period.

You can’t swap a new juror into a trial which has started. All have to hear the same evidence.

Did jury service 20 years ago now so it’s probably different but as I understood it then a new juror would be sworn in. In my 2 weeks, we covered 5 cases and no-one was ill. it was fascinating and everyone took their responsibility incredibly seriously.

Vast majority of cases last a few days only and A lot don’t proceed etc. It’s not uncommon for someone in the pool not to be used for the majority of the period.

I was picked every time including a long case that went in over the remainder of my time. Another person starting on the sand day didn’t get picked once and after a week and a half was sent home!

dictionary it’s odd isn’t it?

HeronLanyon Yes, just luck I suppose. I was pleased to be called because it was interesting, until the last long case which was a horrible one. 😕

When I did jury service I sat in on four cases and ended up actually having to decide if they were guilty or not for just one case. One decided to plead guilty a day into the case and the other two decided to plead guilty to lesser charges. I found the whole thing very interesting. I was impressed by the judges. But yes most of the time I spent reading I was hoping to have loads more time off work.

Anyway OP, if your DH does become unwell the doctor will decide whether he is fit for service. He’d have to tell them he needs an appointment same day and tell them why, he needs the certificate for court. They won’t charge him for the paperwork.

Ahh interesting, sounds like it varies then what would happen. I guess these things must happen every now and then. Although I completely understand why you would need medical proof of any illness (if your GP surgery is anything like ours though you've got about as much chance of getting blood out of a stone as you do getting an appointment to certify a short-term illness).

On a practical point, does anyone know if it is likely that court will be finished by 5pm each day? On my work days DH will have to pick the DDs up from nursery still which closes at 6pm, and it'll take about an hour in rush hour traffic to get from the courts to the nursery, so he would need to be out of court by 5pm at the latest.

when I was a juror I became ill with mastitis during the deliberations of a trial (almost passed out )

All jurors were sent home the day I was ill, I managed to come back the next day and we reached a verdict.

The rest of the jurors had to show up for potentially another trial (we were on day 2 of the second week) but I was excused from the remainder of the service by the judge.

Again, up here court would generally only sit until 4 unless in the middle of important evidence.

We finished at 5 or before on all the short one or two day cases. The long case was often later though he judge tried his best to predict so we could make arrangements.

Hmm, looks like it will be hard to predict on exactly when he should finish most days then. I don't really do the sort of job where I can just go to pick up the kids if he gets held up in court though (I'm a nurse on an inpatient ward, and don't usually get home from work until 10pm when on a late shift), and don't have much family around to pick the kids up for us. I wonder if it's worth him saying to the court Clark he needs to be out of court by 5pm and whether they would try to accommodate that.

Yes he must tell the jury ushers of any time issues. It would be a good idea for him to have a short letter from the nursery (showing address) re child being there and the pick up time. Have that with him on days he must be gone by 5.

They do know people need to be home for childcare though, loads of the jurors will need this, and try to finish at a reasonable time but they won’t end early for one person or anything. Best to have emergency cover for those weeks just in case.

Thank you Heron that's really good advice. It's only a couple of times a week that I'll be on a late shift, so hopefully it wouldn't be a massive issue if he asks to finish by 5pm on those days.

dictionarycorners sorry you did a horrid one. I very often think jurors should have after care after some cases. Those of us who work in courts do become accustomed to a lot but I know the work (the more grim sides of it) have changed me over the years. Give me a ‘good clean fraud or similar’ I sometimes think. (Not minimising fraud btw).

HeronLanyon yep, I would have much preferred a fraud even if it had gone in for weeks.

The court was very good at preparing us for what was going to happen, they really are experts at the their job.

One of the worst things for me was MIL! She rang up wanting to know the details, even though she knew it was ILLEGAL for me to tell her! I unplugged the phone the third evening and blocked her on my mobile. Then when it was over she wanted to know which case it had been and I wouldn’t tell her. DH had to tell her to back off.

It just made it worse knowing that she was wanting to salivate over juicy gossip when it was people’s lives that were forever changed by the crime.

Just out of interest does breastfeeding count as a reason to be excused jury service if the child is over 1?

Oooh interesting, never thought of it until the mastitis post by clifffiver above.

Lakeche ssys this
www.laleche.org.uk/breastfeeding-and-jury-servic/