Jury service Manchester crown

[40andlovelife]

I am due to go on jury service in July and wondered what peoples experiences were. Do you tend to be expected to be there everyday or do they send you home if not needed/ finishing times etc? I am looking forward to it but just keen to hear other people's experiences

I did it some years ago. Yes, we were expected to be there every day, but
were sent home early once or twice. There was quite a lot of sitting around, waiting to be called! So do take a book or something to occupy yourself with. Our jury room provided books and jigsaws! Using any sort of internet device was strictly prohibited, and we were very firmly warned that googling any defendant could, and previously had, resulted in a prison sentence. Ditto discussing the case with anyone, either in or out of the building.

In general I was left with a very favourable impression of the system. It was evident that although some guilty defendants would probably go free, it was a lot less likely that any innocent person would be convicted. The judges impressed on us that unless we were thoroughly convinced of guilt, we must return a ‘not guilty’ verdict.