Jury Service

[Wiltinglillies]

Inspired by (but not about) the thread on innocent people, I wondered how many who had been on Jury service felt it was a positive experience and that the justice system was correctly served by you and your jury colleagues. (Iyswim)

I've never been asked, nor have any close family.

Don't fgs reply if you're on active jury service right now!!!

I'm mid 50s and never been called but I hope it does happen before I'm too old.

My DM got called to the Old Bailey and sat on two cases, one a murder and the other an armed robbery and she loved every minute.

Interesting read - I’m beginning my first ever very shortly! I was rather excited when it arrived, but everyone I’ve spoken to has had a reaction of “oh no”.

I’ll try to remember to come back to this thread in about a month...

There's also a weird aspect top the "random" call up

My mum's been called twice, my sister has been called twice, I've been called twice. My dad was called more than once but could always swerve it

Everyone I know who has been called to jury service says it's a horrible experience and 'Make up an excuse why you can't go' type comments. I've never been called though so can't say one way or the other.

I've been called three times including a horrible case at the Old Bailey. During one stint, a set of men in wigs, bright gowns and staffs entered - apparently its some sort of ancient ritual - very archaic to my mind but I guess these are old traditions.

It was strongly impressed upon us by the judges that if we had the slightest doubt, we must return a Not Guilty verdict.

It's not "the slightest doubt" though, it's "reasonable" doubt.

I've never been called.

I was a juror at a Coroners court a few years ago. I found the experience enlightening. We had to find out why a very old lady died whilst in a care home. It made me come away really fearing having to go in to a care home in later years. At the moment I am 66 years old and in good health but the findings of the jury were unanimously negligence of care for the old lady in this case. I wept for the old lady and her family
It was passed to the police for investigation by the Coroner
Our justice system is alive and well but our care system severely broken

I've done it three times (must be 'cause I'm so good at it!) and found it fascinating every time.

The first time was a lengthy conspiracy to defraud case, the second was a series of relatively petty stupidness from people with sad lives, and the third was a sort of people smuggling/immigration crimes thing but with altruistic motives.

Fellow jurors were, as you would expect, a complete mix but with one or two I would have preferred not to be there - the man who fell asleep after lunch (at the pub) every day, the man who announced he'd never believe anything a police officer said, the two people who conducted an entire relationship in the space of their jury service - the break-up was ineteresting. But most people took the responsibility extremely seriously and considered the issues carefully and diligently.

I wouldn't be sad or upset to be called again. Although surely lightning can't strike four times.

I was on a long case (14 weeks). It was Money laundering. We were completely split initially but as the days of deliberating get longer you just keep going over the evidence and listening to each others points of view - eventually we got to a majority verdict of not guilty. I found the whole process so interesting and as a jury we all took it very seriously though I can imagine there may be some juries that just want it over. I do actually believe our verdict was wrong but if it was at least someone wasn't wrongly convicted. The hardest part for me was seeing the families in court looking so worried and upset and also watching cross examination. Some of it was brutal. Horrible. The best bit was the relief on faces at our verdict. As a jury we still meet up once in a while though we have long since stopped talking about our case!

When I was a juror the defendant's partner was in the visitors gallery and stared at us all intently throughout the trial. I was quite nervous of her reaction when we came back with the guilty verdict. To my surprise she grinned at us all and punched the air!

Did it once. It was interesting. He was found guilty (majority). Case lasted nearly the full two weeks. Like a PP he was found guilty by the jury almost straight away as 'he looked the type' and 'they wouldn't have charged him if they didn't think he did it'. The evidence was strange and I thought he was well and truly being set up but the accusers were 'nice' and he was 'scruffy and shifty'. We had no guidance from the judge on level of evidence and the chairwoman was convinced that 'he may have done it' was good enough.

Left me glad I wasn't being prosecuted.

I did it when I was only just old enough and it was horrific because of the case. It was the worst kind of case imaginable and the evidence was horrendous.

It lasted for weeks longer than expected and every day the evidence seemed to get worse

There was only one juror who disagreed with everyone else on the verdict and their attitude was hideous generally. Eventually they changed their mind and I think it was only because he was going on holiday

The case was so horrible that we were told we’d be excused jury duty for at least ten years, but “hopefully” for life

One of the things that shocked me was that there was no follow up for the jury. No one checked we were ok or offered counselling or anything. Just weeks and weeks of looking at horrendous images and hearing horrific testimony then basically “see ya, enjoy being a teenager again!”. Apparently we should have been offered support, but whoever was meant to do that didn’t

I really enjoyed the experience and, despite the one chap's lack of English, I think it was as fair a system as any. It's never going to be perfect and there will always be exceptions which work less well, as there are in any system, anywhere in the World (IMO).

I did it and really enjoyed it but I'm aware they weren't distressing cases. I think what's unnerving is the jurors who seem unable to separate the facts presented and their 'gut feeling'.

Been called for jury service three times. First time I wasn’t required to attend court. The other times my boss wrote a letter to say I was a valuable member of staff and potentially having weeks off work(high court) would be very detrimental to the running of a very busy department.I am now retired so if I’m ever called upon again I should be able to do it if needed.

I've always wanted to be a juror but never been called. It's always struck me as odd how some people get called multiple times and some people not at all.

I've done jury service and I'm glad I did in that I'm a nosey bugger and it was interesting to see how it works but I'd happily never do it again. There was an awful lot of being told 'the jury needs a break' and sitting around in the jury room. The trial stretched over three days for about an hour and half worth of evidence and an hour of deliberation. No doubt there's stuff that goes on behind the scenes but I kind of resented being told it was for the jury's benefit when we'd have happily got it out of the way in one morning.

The case itself was just sad. Both defendant and victim were drug addicts and it left me more convinced than ever that drugs need to be dealt with as a health, not criminal justice, issue.

Interesting thread.
During my Dd's trial i felt very uncomfortable with regards to the jury.
One member(female) spent most of the time staring at the family members sitting in the court.
I was scared to look at them in case I got accused of trying to influence their decision.
When the jury returned a NOT PROVEN verdict my brother completely lost his shit and stood up and started to shout at the jury and the Accused.
The judge threatened to detain him.

I resented doing it. At the time I was only contracted weekends and really needed the money from my weekend hours and weekday overtime. They said I wasn't allowed to work at the weekend as jurors needed to rest, and that they'd cover my contracted hours but not the overtime. It was going to be a struggle losing the money but I went to fill in the form to at least claim my weekend pay, only to find no boxes for Saturday and sunday on it, as they can't pay for days the court is closed. I ended up crying in a meeting room panicking that I wasn't allowed to go to work or be paid for my time. Eventually they relented and said I could go to work at the weekend after all. I ended up spending three days bored out of my mind in the waiting room, on a trial for two days, working 12 hour shifts both saturday and sunday to make up for lost time then three more days on trial one. I hoped that I'd be done, but as I'd only served a week and a half they put me on another trial that lasted two weeks (and two more weekends of 12 hour shifts to compensate). I felt like a prisoner and was terrified of being late and getting fined. I think its wrong that jurors arent at least paid minimum wage. You're supposed to come to a unanimous vote and make a decision beyond all reasonable doubt, but if you put people under pressure that makes them desperately want to be done with it, you're forcing people to make a decision without enough time to consider it properly. The whole experience genuinely felt like a punishment.

I was on a grand jury. It was a very positive experience. I'd do it again in a second.

I should add the trials were a knife attack and a rape case so not especially pleasant either when I wasn't waiting around

I was asked to a coroners jury but couldn’t do it and then never sent a new date. I’m 41.

My Dad is just about to do jury service at 70 and my brother did it when aged 18 (many years ago).

I've done it. It's was a good few years ago now but I remember one juror when it came to our deliberation having absolutely no idea of the issues of the case or any understanding of the law (which had been explained) relating to the offence. Her English was awful-I don't think she should have been a juror.

My husband has done 1 criminal and 1 coroners.
My dads a policeman and got called up which was pointless as he either knew of the defendants, some of the police witnesses or the barristers!
My sister was called up recently but wasn’t selected as a juror. I’m really fascinated by it and would love to be called up x