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!

It’s completely random. The nature of random selection is that it doesn’t exclude repeat selection. What do you suggest they do to improve the selection process?

https://amp.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/20/jury-service-repeated-summons

I've lost count of the times I've been called. Seems to be every few years like clockwork. I was selected for the jury only once though. They then gave me 5 years off but I was called again soon after the time was up.

The exclusion time should be a lot longer than 2 years, so they pick from people who haven’t served before first. Would make a lot more sense than the current system!

My poor mum has been called 4 times! Honestly, it’s a massive inconvenience and the courts don’t care at all, you’ll go to the trouble of cancelling all commitments and arranging transport, arranging cover at work, and then they might just say you’re not needed that day.

I don't believe it's as random as they like to make out. They tried to get me 3 years in a row (13 months between each letter) and only in the 3rd year did I get a permanent excusal. A month after I received that permanent exclusion adult DD was picked and 2 weeks later adult DS got the letter.

I'm a single parent with 2DC, one with additional needs. I work full-time in a senior level role, and my monthly expenses (mortgage, bills, childcare) are well over £6k per month; I'd go bankrupt if I had to do a long jury service and the court reimbursement didn't at least match that.

Would someone explain how the court payments work from their experience, please?

I can’t either. DH had to do it at a court 45 miles away, be there by 8.30am and didn’t leave before 7pm most days. He wasn’t driving at the time so was leaving at 6.30, getting back at 9pm, for 3 weeks.
He said he found the trial tedious, nothing like he’d expected and hopes not to get called again.

No, not confined to your county.
You get recompensed for travel expenses, but be warned - if you’re driving and arrive late because of an accident on the motorway or something else, you get fined. This happened to a neighbour.

It just seems bonkers that some people are called several times but some (most?!) People never get called. I only know two people who have done it an one of them died 20 years ago. Maybe it could an opt out system like being a donor?

One of my friends got called and she didn't want to do it, so she wrote to the court and told them that she was deaf and due to this, she wouldn't be able to hear what was being said in the courtroom.
She was excused and has never been called since.
Her hearing is and always has been perfect.

I don’t agree with trial by judge, but I do think that following random selection, jurors should undergo some sort of assessment to ensure suitability.
Both for their own wellbeing and also to safeguard the process.
There are some extremely limited (polite word) people out there.

That's crazy, I can't believe they don't check!

That's crazy, I can't believe they don't check!

I don't think it's usual not to check peoples excusals. I emailed in my autism diagnosis the first 2 times but they only got me excused for a year. Year 3 they got diagnosis letters for autism, ADHD and complex PTSD along with the letter from my GP that they requested. That's when I finally got a permanent exemption. I don't know anyone who had been excused without evidence tbh.

When I got called for a longish trial default was to say in public but you could ask to speak to the judge privately if you preferred. I was excused as I was pregnant ( but still expected to do a shorter one) and think we had quite a nice judge as he excused a lot if people due to work.

Im not surprised in the least people want to be excused. It’s traumatic, it’s terrifying to have stand in front of eg organised criminals who could find out where you live etc, it’s loss of time and income. I can’t think of a single reason why anyone would want to do it other than boredom. The ‘civic duty’ logic is BS.

I only know one person who liked doing it. She was delighted to be off work for a couple of months. She was delighted to be on a jury. She wasn’t very bright and had lots of mental health issues. I would never have wanted her anywhere near a trial I was involved in. It’s very worrying they don’t do an assessment of juror’s mental health, reasoning ability, logic assessment. There must be a high number of people serving juries who you wouldn’t allow babysit your child for a few hours and the same people are making decisions on people’s futures.

I’ve only known of two people who have done it. No one in my family or dh’s family. One was our head of languages at the time, age asked to defer the first time because it was just before GCSE exams and there were speaking tests to facilitate. But she got called again soon after and had to do it during the summer holidays. She had to cancel her holiday because couldn’t say no again. The other is a friend who works in our local council offices. She did two weeks. I’d be really interested to do it, to see how the whole process works and so on. But I couldn’t be away from school for a long trial (secondary head of department). Must be so hard to be on such a lengthy trial.

That's right. Even barristers can now serve I understand.

The jury I served on was for a very emotive case which had national press coverage. The judge told us not to watch the news or read about the case or even any reference to it on social media - that was a tall order for almost 4 months. The press were waiting outside the court to photograph the defendants (who were out on bail) but would stop photographing if a juror might be caught in the shot. It was very weird knowing that we were known by sight to the photographers but not as weird as when one of the defendants held the door for me in the security queue.
I would also agree that there should be more support for jurors prior to the trial. There needs to be some assessment of aptitude in terms of reading skills and basic comprehension. The jury I was on had an extremely broad range of strengths and weaknesses. And to put it bluntly, one or two jurors were unable to to follow what was going on in the detail required and/or couldn't leave their prejudices and preconceptions behind. But that didn't transpire fully until deliberation.
I really feel for the jury on the LL trial. 10 months of really intense stuff and then being expected to suddenly switch off and return to work where they will be bombarded with questions etc. It takes time to decompress.

And judges!

I was in a horrific case for over two months when I was 19.

I was on job seekers at the time and it was a bloody nightmare as they kept saying I’d missed appointments as I couldn’t hand in the form to the job centre as I was in court all day, and to post it it went to a central point first and took days to get to where it was needed. Twice when I put it through the letterbox of the job centre they lost it.
I also missed three job interviews because of it.

After the case we were excused for 10 years, as that was the most the judge could excuse us for despite him saying he’d excuse us for life if he could. We spent all those weeks seeing horrific images and hearing horrendous things and then at the end they just said “thanks very much. Remember no talking about the bits your banned from talking about. Bye” and sent us on our way with no help going forward.

I was lucky that I had a counsellor already that I trusted enough to talk to her about it.

I’ve never known anyone to be called and tbh I really hope I never am.

Im terrible with faces and memories and facts. I am not good and being open minded at stuff like this and the fact I’m deaf also means I would miss a hell of a lot

I wouldn't be able to do it. I hope I'm never called.
I'm self employed and have a chronic illness which means I need lots of rest. I also have cancer and can't afford to miss appointments!

You would absolutely be excused for cancer appointments.

It can be a poor system at times, but it’s not that bad.

I keep getting cited despite the fact I work in the courts (though not a solicitor or directly employed by the court service) - they refuse to permanently excuse me.

First was deferred because of a holiday, second because the Queen died and all courts closed and third because of pregnancy/DS's first day of school clashed with it.

It's annoying because I know fine that in any given trial there's a good chance I'll either know the person in the dock, one of the witnesses or the legal team and will not be allowed on that jury anyway.

I think I'd find it interesting but I have a chronic illness and there's no way I could do it. I have no doubt I'd be excused.