To wonder how jury service works

[Bearbehind]

On the news tonight there was an article about the Hillsborough enquiry and it said it is expected to last at least for the rest of the year.

How do they select the jury for that?

I was part of a long trial (a month) and got paid the wages I'd have earnt (which tbf, was MW at the time).

I did jury service about three years ago. I was on a casual contract so lost out financially at a time I was quite strapped for cash.

That said, I think compared to other western European states where they demand lengthy periods of national service from their citizens, jury service is, by and large, not an oonerous commitment. It essential to the working of a justice system and of I were on trial, I would like to think the jury consisted of people who were prepared to engage with the process and the evidence, not people who were bored and resentful or those who hadn't worked out a good enough dodge to get out of it.

What it you get called and you've got a bf young baby??

You can ask to defer if you have a very yopung child

Not sure about Scotland but the exempt categories in England & Wales are very few. Even judges/doctors/MPs etc can be called

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1458545/Fewer-now-exempt-from-jury-service.html

I've done jury service twice. The first time roune I deferred because I had a bad back which meant I wouldn't have been able to sit down for long. I work for the NHS, and in my department four of us had been called within about 3 months. My wages were paid as normal but we had to go into work if we had any early finishes.
Two years ago, working for a different trust, I did a 4 week trial. There were a few days when the judge had prior commitments and we weren't needed. I went into work on the first of these days and my manager exploded at me, and accused me of lieing about being on jury service as she'd never heard of people having days off from jury service. I had to get the clerk to write a letter stating the days I wouldn't be required.

I think that you can say that you need to limit the time spent on Jury Service to two weeks.

In England they have cut down on the professions that can be excused from Jury service as ultimately it made Jurys less representative of the general population.

I was able to defer twice. The first time dd was 3 weeks old and I had to get a letter from my doctor. The second time I was called to attend on the same day I was to start a new job, they let me defer for that. Haven't heard from them since.

I'm excused due to my job with the police, and I think I'm excused for quite a while following leaving the job too. My colleagues and I JOKINGLY reckon we could save the justice service a LOT of money.....line up all the accused and we could just pick off the "frequent fliers" as guilty, with
It the expense of a trial

Anyone over 18 can be called. I got my first letter for jury service two days after my 18th birthday! They did say i could not do it but I did it anyway. Then, I got called again when I was 30!

A friend (in Australia) was called to sit on a year long trial. It was awful for her, really disrupted her life.

Because they knew the trial was going to be so long, they selected extra (3, I think) jurors because of the high likelihood of people having to drop out along the way. One juror ended up having to leave to have emergency dental work three days before the end of the trial. Others had to leave earlier.

If there had been any extras left at the end, they would have randomly selected some to be taken off.

Not sure if there is a similar system for long trials in the UK.

for the Hillsborough case they have selected an extra 10 "spare" jurors in case any of the originals drop out

Some employers pay you while you do it, and as far as I'm aware you can get off if they won't.

I work with someone who got her nanny off jury service by confirming in writing that she wouldn't pay her for the duration. It was talked about at the time as if this was fairly common knowledge and practice.

Looking at gov.uk now I can't see any suggestion of this, just that you can claim for loss if earnings. I cannot believe how low the daily cap is!!

How on earth are people supposed to do this and be expected to be out of pocket? Wtaf?? It seems completely unreasonable that they can reimburse you for a penny less than what you earn.

The worst timing I knew was somebody who was called just after starting their final year at university. They could defer, and had a letter from their DoS saying missing university would have a negative impact on their degree (science, so more labs and contact hours than an arts degree) but they had a job lined up to start straight after finishing.

I think in the end they let them know what dates exams times were etc. and were put on a short case during the Easter holidays. So they must be reasonably flexible.

Actually, I know somebody else called whilst at university and had to sit on quite a long case over the summer holiday. I don't think they were reimbursed at all, because they'd normally get a temp job over the holidays to earn but obviously didn't because they were sitting.

Prompted by this thread I've just looked at re eligibility criteria, I always assumed that because I am Irish living in the UK I would be ineligible, but apparently not!

The expenses you can claim go up the longer you remain on Jury service. I think that public sector workers usually receive their full pay. Maybe some large private firms do as well.

When DH did Jury service he was able to say that he could only do the minimum (two weeks). Unfortunately, I expect that there are fewer well paid professionals on the Jury for long trials compared with short trials because of this.

Your name has to be on the electoral roll first. If you are very clever, you can circumnavigate that little dilemma

I would love to do jury duty ...

When DH did Jury service he was able to say that he could only do the minimum (two weeks). Unfortunately, I expect that there are fewer well paid professionals on the Jury for long trials compared with short trials because of this.

Yes, this is a problem if the more educated people can be excused from long trials.

I am 41 and want to be called but never have. My dad spent over 20 years as a magistrate, therefore ineligible. Now he is retired he has spent 7 weeks on a murder trial about 3 years ago and has been called again next week!

Being self employed though, I wonder how I would claim or prove loss of earnings.

I was called up when I was still bf my dc so I got it deferred for a year. I then had to put him in nursery and work out wrap around care for dc in primary school. My daily reimbursement was worked out on my last years wage because I'm self employed and they also pay travel and lunch costs. There was a group there that had been there 4 months and I know they were getting a higher rate of payment.

My jobshare partner did it just before Christmas for 2 weeks. We are teachers. She didn't get paid, she got her expenses and "the shortfall" was not made up by her employer. I felt really bad for her. Having said that she could have ended up on a much longer trial. It seems most odd to me that some people are called up multiple times and most people not at all.

I got called but was exempt because I have long standing MH issues. Just as well as I'm a single parent of a disabled dd, but that alone wouldn't get me out of doing it. They recently changed the rules so that I'm not automatically exempt now, but MIND says that I'd probably be able to get excused if my psych wrote a letter.

You get called based on the electoral register. You are supposed to be on the electoral register of the local authority of the address where you live on a certain date (think 10 October) . The selection is entirely random so you could get called several years running! There are limited 'get out ' clauses ' but the local admin people are human and try to help ime. My cancer was good excuse as was my sis who was called for her first day back after maternity leave.

In my workplace of approx 50 people, 35 of us were called for jury duty in a 2 year period. Found that very odd.