Has anyone been on a jury of a very long trial?

[Zolf]

Off the back of the Lucy Letby trial which lasted 10 months, I was wondering how it works logistically to be on a jury for that long? What happens if you have holidays booked? What if your employer don't pay you? I know mine wouldn't (very small company) and the compensation from the court is pitiful. Can't imagine being on a jury for that long!

Seems a bit wonky that you can get off if you have a holiday booked but not if you will be financially impacted by loss of work or pay. People should be properly compensated.

I know it's random but how do people get chosen? I'd love to do jury service

I did 12 weeks on an upsetting case at the Central Criminal Court about a decade ago. I was paid in full (public sector) but did go into work when the court wasn't sitting, and worked a bit during some of the waiting around and in the evenings as my work couldn't be covered by anyone else.

There's no "counselling" although we may have been offered some generic leaflet. We were excused from serving again for 15 years.

Being on the jury for this case must have been awful. My heart goes out to everyone involved.

I can't understand why this took so long. The system should change, Apparently these poor jurers had to attend medical "seminars" to try and understand the facts.

They should have had medical people involved in this trial and it would have been sorted much quicker, far sooner.

I ve done it twice, once for three weeks and last month for just two weeks. My oh did it last week and was called in advance to ask if he could do six weeks, he said no and that was fine. Perhaps all the people on the letby trial were retired?

I knew someone who was off work for the best part of a year on a well known grooming / abuse trial. Her employer was very sympathetic and she was fully paid but she was worried about the time out of work/ impact on her career progression, and utterly traumatised by the time it was over some of the evidence amd testimonies were so horrendous. Personally I don't think people should be forced to do jury service I reckon there are enough people that would actually be interested in doing it / don't have work commitments to choose from.

I think jurors should be compensated properly. It's crazy that someone who's self employed won't have enough to live on - and might well not have clients to go back to - if they do a lengthy jury service.

In the Lucy Letby case and other very big cases I think it should be tried by three judges instead.

A drug dealer kills another drug dealer?

A victim of domestic abuse or child abuse kills their abuser?

I deferred mine and moved areas because I was called in my student town and due to complete the final workplace placement that I needed to pass my degree. They deferred my duty for a couple of months and moved me to my home town. I did one case that lasted 3-4 days iirc.

Do you basically negotiate with the judge for your compensation, childcare costs etc?

I agree that being relieved of future jury duty is nothing in comparison to the disruption and more importantly the trauma, that those jurors on the Lucy Letby trial will have suffered. I hope they have counselling offered. I can't even imagine.

I’m interested in how people are selected. The only people I know who have been selected have served several times. It seems you get chosen either lots of times or never. One of our neighbours’ daughter has done it twice and she’s only 22! I have a colleague who is off for 3 weeks at the moment and this is her second time. BiL has done it at least 3 times.

I was selected a few weeks ago for Jury Duty, the case was expected to last longer than the letter had stated so I didn't have childcare booked for the extra. I told the court I didn't have childcare sorted and that I was self-employed so also losing money and I'd need to pay unfront for the cost of 3 children, I was basically told tough.

I'm a nurse, no way could I be sores for a long trial. We are already short staffed.

And I should add that someone was allowed to get out of Jury Duty because she had a doctors appointment, while I was forking out £90 a day for childcare!

I've just been called for the third time in 10 years. The first time was pretty traumatic so I was discharged for 5 but they were at me again very soon after the 5 years were up. That time I phoned every day but wasn't used. I've deferred twice, one for holidays and once my work got me off.

What’s questionable about it?

A victim of domestic abuse or child abuse kills their abuser?

While those murders may not be tragic, the situations surrounding them would be, and would presumably also take a toll on any jury though.

That is essentially a whole academic year. I have no idea how schools would make it work. I’d have to plan and mark all the work for all my classes for someone else to teach. It’s bad enough doing it for a day, but for a year?! And all my exam classes would be screwed.

You are offered counselling, I just sat on a rape and sexual assault on a child under 13 case and we were. It is heart rending when you hear the evidence

Anecdotally, a lot of jurors in long trials work in the public sector, as they are rather better than private sector in honouring the requirement to keep jobs open.

I've never been called but a family member missed being on the Rose West trial because they got a last minute call to sit on another case.

I'm public sector so would be ok from a job POV but I really feel for anyone on a low income/freelance/needing to sort childcare. Taking time off for jury duty should not put people into hardship or risk them losing their job; they should be compensated adequately and employers should not be allowed to treat employees unfavourably because of it.

Are you able to take your laptop and work in-between court? I definitely wouldn't get paid if I was called up, and my job wouldn't be kept open if it turned into a long trial.

Interesting people are saying they weren't excused due to childcare. I literally replied to the letter and said that I was a sahm with a 1 year old child that didn't have a childcare place anywhere and no family to help (which was true) I mean technically I guess dh could have looked after her but then I'm assuming his employers wouldn't have paid him as he wasn't the one doing jury duty. Luckily they just said ok and I've never heard again. I'd actually quite like to do it now.

Got Called to the Old Bailey a few years back. They have literally hundreds of people waiting as jurors because they have such complex cases. After days of hanging around, The one we were sent down to court for was fraud and about 50 of us were in the court. We were told about the case and the names of relevant people - if we knew them in any way we had to say. After that anyone that had reason not to commit had to approach the judge and explain why. I had very young DCs and no childcare as it was half term so I was excused. Lots and lots of people were freelance and were excused. There was a bit of ridiculous argy bargy about a pregnant woman who was 8 months gone and still required to go through the rigmarole of approaching the judge 🙄. What surprised me most was that so many others wanted out - I wouldn’t have minded if circumstances allowed.

I then ran into a very good friend outside the Court one morning who was on a 9 month trial - obvs I didn’t know as he wasn’t able to tell. He was quite enjoying it but it was a drugs smuggling trial and not violent or awful in that way. It did have a big impact on him though

I was on a jury about thirteen years ago.. The defendant was found guilty of a violent assault and bailed to return for sentencing. The defendant left by the same door. A fellow juror was a driving instructor, as she was walking towards her car with her phone number emblazoned in it she noticed the defendent in the car park and waited till he had been driven away before she walked to her car! There was a nine month long fraud trial running along the same time as I was on js. Glad I wasn't picked for that!