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!

For years I've wanted to be called but now my work circumstances would make it impossible to so a long trial

I guess if the days are short, I could work around it but I need to be around for my young kid after school

That's a good point about other commitments, I live alone so if I needed anything doing around the house such as the boiler being serviced or fixed, there would be nobody else around to be there for it.

Also, are the jury in court all day every day 5 days a week for the whole 10 months? With no breaks other than weekends and bank holidays? I would never work 10 months straight at my job without taking leave, I'd completely burn out, surely jurors who are hearing distressing information aren't expected to work 10 months with no break?

Can you just ignore the letter if you’re called and say you never received it? There’s so many people who would find it impossible to do due to childcare, costs, etc. They really need to improve the compensation and make sure people are fully covered. If I was forced to do it I’d be so pissed off about it that I doubt I’d be a useful member of the jury (I can be a bit of a stubborn cow).

I'd be really interested in doing it, but it wouldn't go down well at work. We have an insurance policy to cover supply teacher costs, which I would assume could cover JD absences, but it doesn't kick in straight away so would incur costs to the school.

Dh was called up for it once, but wrote back to explain he had a prosthetic leg and would find it difficult physically depending on the size of the seating/leg room etc. They let him off and he hasn't been called back up, and that was over twenty years ago.

I'm a teacher. They get the school to write a letter saying what your daily wage is and reimburse you that.

I was called over 15 years ago i wrote to them explaining my childcare situation and how that wouldn't change until the date my then youngest child would leave primary school and to my absolute relief i was excused.
I will never do it and if in the future i have to lie to get out of it i will ,i feel no civil duty whatsoever to do jury service and i strongly object to being made by law to do it.
I believe that on the annual electoral role list there should be a box to tick showing your preference to do service or not ,there are many people willing to do it so surely there must be a large enough quantity out of those people to pick the desired amount.
Even though i have decent bosses i work for a small company and would not get paid and my work would need to be covered, also it would cause my family great financial hardship . It is a disgrace that people may suffer financially as well as mentally and emotionally due to forced jury service lasting such a long time.
My heart goes out to the families of those precious beautiful babies ,i have also spared a thought to what that jury have seen and heard over the last 10 months.

Some people never get called - and some people get called lots of times. Since it is random, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

My partner has served twice as have several of my close friends. Some of them felt concerned about the jury system afterwards and that numerous people on the jury were not able to understand the complexities of the cases and it was difficult to reach a verdict as a result. Has anyone experienced that? I find it worrying.

I am not UK but as soon as I got my new country's citizenship, I got called literally weeks later. Turned out I couldn't serve as I knew the person prosecuting. It seemed insane to me that they hadn't even done a basic search of social media or something as they would have seen, not only did we live streets apart but we were mutual friends on all social media platforms. It was such a waste of day as I'd love to be on a jury.

My friend spent her 30th birthday halfway through a 16 week stint on Jury service. She had annual leave booked but no reservations in her name as hotel was booked by us friends as a surprise trip and therefore couldn’t be excused.

I don’t really understand why we value juries so highly, if I’m honest. I think I’d be quite happy with criminals being judged and sentenced by judges who were experts in the various fields.

@Shutuptrevor I think that's a really dangerous view, would be open to group think amongst the supposed experts and ultimately based on the idea that criminals are different to others and that innocent people can't be facing trials when they do, hence recent miscarriages of justice in the news

'It’s not really much, is it? The chance of being called twice must be very very small'

@ElthamLemur I don't think so. I was called twice when I was in my 20s. I declined to do it the second time as it was less than two years since the last time I'd done it

@tooearlyforthis98 Pretty important part of our justice system to be judged by peers

If that’s the case then how are judge only trials allowed? Where they believe the person won’t get a ‘fair’ trial from their peers. If that’s okay then I do t see why we can’t just up the number of judges and have trial by judge only. It wouldn’t cost more as there would be many efficiencies by doing away with juries.

I know of a person who had to sit through an horrific, prolonged, trial involving rape, extreme torture, mutilation culminating in murder. Very graphic photos. They had a breakdown a few months later and never worked again. So, that’s 35 years of living on sickness benefits. I personally know someone else who had a breakdown after being on a prolonged murder trial that ended with a hung jury. It shouldn’t be allowed, and judge only options should be used.

I’ve told my kids they are never to do it if they have any sense, lots of ways to get out of it. I have an exempt profession so don’t need to bother, and then guessing they don’t take people over retirement age, but no way I’d be doing it otherwise. Even if just a fraud case or similar, I couldn’t be bothered sitting through the boredom that would entail.

I did two weeks. I worked part time and had part time childcare in place. To be a juror I had to increase childcare hours to full time yet the costs were not fully reimbursed so I was out of pocket. Infuriating.

But if only those who were interested or rich enough opted in, I can imagine the skew and bias of the jury. Not good for a fair trial.

*That's a good point about other commitments, I live alone so if I needed anything doing around the house such as the boiler being serviced or fixed, there would be nobody else around to be there for it.

Also, are the jury in court all day every day 5 days a week for the whole 10 months? With no breaks other than weekends and bank holidays? I would never work 10 months straight at my job without taking leave, I'd completely burn out, surely jurors who are hearing distressing information aren't expected to work 10 months with no break?*

No they take holidays during that time so everyone including the lawyers get a break. Two weeks at Christmas, that sort of thing. Usually in school holidays.

It would be possible to do this. So many people are called.

Sorry I mean impossible.

I'd be able to do it from a work point of view (my employer is very good about that sort of thing) but it would be a childcare nightmare as (when I'm not on mat leave, which I am at the moment) DH and I work different shifts to manage childcare. And DH's aren't completely regular. My mum, who has enough on her plate, would probably have to do the bulk of it.

Far more open to corruption and political pressure. E.g., fuss in the press about not enough convictions for X offence - put pressure on the judges to convict more people.

Some people on this thread should look up the history of our legal system and reflect on the fact that basic human nature appears not to have changed much over the course of recorded history.

Also, what happens if one of the jurors gets flu or something during the trial? Assume it has to stop until they're well enough to return?

When I was called for jury service I had to contact the court and defer because of work commitments. There was ample opportunity then to say why you couldn't do jury service at that time. Some of the responses on this thread read that maybe some posters/friends of posters, etc didn't read all the information and ask to be excused before they got to court. Doesn't mean you won't be called again, but the court staff I dealt with were very empathetic and understanding.

I can't now find the post but a pp stated something about a jury of people who are not working and retired people not being very varied. That's very small-minded as retirees can be from all sorts of backgrounds and experiences as can people not currently working.

@Doggymummar - I'm glad you were. I sat on a similar sounding case two years ago and all we got was an email address and phone number for the Samaritans. It took me several weeks to be able to put some of what we'd heard and read behind me.

I have a permanent excusal due to autism, ADHD and cPTSD. I agree though that it is definitely questionable how we subject lay people to trials without any detail about their suitability or ability to hear the evidence which is going to be given. The problem is though, what else can we/they do?

Depending on what stage the trial is at the judge might excuse that juror and the case would then continue with 11 on the jury.

A friend of mine has just finished after a 8 trial. Third time she’s done it, and the longest one. She was absolutely gutted to be picked and miss the summer (such as it has been) by being inside.

To answer some of the questions raised by other posters:

She has done two trials in our home county and this one was in a neighbouring county. Both an hour’s drive each way.

They weren’t there every single day of the 8 weeks but didn’t get much notice of the days when they wouldn’t be needed (usually the day before) so helpless for boiler serving etc

Potential jurors with holidays booked were excused from the process but people with annual leave but no plans or voluntary commitments were not excused. Her trip to visit grandchildren at the other end of the country wasn’t good enough.

she said most of her fellow jurors were idiots and struggled with basic instructions like when they could go to the bathroom.