Jury service- what happens?

[Sportycustard]

I've been called up for jury service at the end of the month. I have a very busy senior job and I am dreading the email backlog after two weeks. I've never done it before but I've heard that there's a lot of waiting around involved. Will I be able to work during that time? Will I be able use my laptop? Is there likely to be WiFi? What about phone calls? Will I be able to take them if I am not on a jury or are phones banned?

The official info is rather sparse on details so any info welcome!

There can be a lot of waiting around, especially if you're not called straight away. Or you could be called first day! No way of knowing. When I did I wasn't called til the second week.

At our court, if you weren't picked one day you had a number to call to see if you needed to attend the next day. Not sure if that is the case everywhere though (and it's still no guarantee you'll be picked).

I think the wifi is probably court specific - wasn't available at the one I went too, but perhaps is at others.

I wasn't chosen but there was a lot of waiting beforehand. From what I remember when we were in the waiting room we did use our phones.

When I did it there were loads of people obviously working - on laptops, taking calls etc. It was a big communal area with tables as well as comfy chairs, and lots of power points. There was a guest wifi password too.
You might get called to sit on a jury straight away though - I was, and it lasted the full two weeks, so no waiting around for me!
Court broke for lunch, and tended to wrap up around 4pm, so there was time to get stuff done at the end of the day too. While the trial was going on we could use phones at lunch etc., but while we were deliberating (that took 4 days!) we had to hand phones in and were locked in a room for the whole day. I just had to give work the heads-up about that, as I was completely incommunicado.

The jury clerks at the court are really helpful - you could email them beforehand for info, email address is on the court website page usually.

I did it last year. Yes, you could take a lap top and work. The strength / reliability of wi-fi will be court dependent. For most people there is a HUGE amount of waiting around.
I was lucky to be called for the first Jury and the case lasted the fortnight, but even then there was a lot of waiting around whilst they did stuff in the background.
I spoke to a lady who was 1/2 way through her 2nd week and still not got on a case that actually ran.
We were in a communal room, so - whereas people were talking on their phones, it wouldn't be confidential. Depends what you were needing to do. Also you do suddenly get called to go through, so don't get a 15min warning of being able to wind up what you are doing. You'd have to shut down straight away.

I recently finished a long jury service. I was picked on the first day and we were told our case could last up to twelve weeks. Because it was a long case initially 50 jurors were picked. We were asked if anyone had holiday booked or any surgery. Some people had valid reasons so they were dismissed. It took a whole day for jury to be picked. We also had to look at a list of names to see if we knew any of the people connected to case. Judge then called out names and asked each of us again if there was any reason we could not take part. One guy said that he was coming up to a busy work period. The judge said that was not a valid reason. One lady was a full time carer for someone with dementia. She was dismissed. Just telling you this because there are so many cases that go on longer than the two weeks! We did have the occasional day off throughout our case. Sometimes we were dismissed for the day at 2pm which was great but generally we were in from 10 - 4.30 each day. During lunch hour lots of people making calls and working on laptops. There was WiFi in our court (Central London). Good luck.

Yes you can get on with work but may need to drop it at a moment’s notice. I was astounded at the number of people, normally older, who brought literally nothing, didn’t even read a magazine, for days on end. Just sat and made very occasional small talk.