Jury Duty

[Chickenkeev]

Has anyone ever done it? I've never been called (thank fk!) but i'm curious as to what it's like. In one way it could be really interesting, and in another way it could be really traumatising. And, in the traumatising cases, is there any aftercare?

There's a huge amount of waiting around and often people don't end up sitting on any trial despite doing their two week stint. I think they've got better at phoning on the morning to say whether people are needed.

I’ve been called twice too, last one was at the Old Bailey. Intent to supply and intent to murder. Can’t be called up again for jury duty for the next 10 years. It was like living in an alternative universe for 2 months

Never? I've been called 3 times. 😩 Only been on a jury once, the first time. The other times I've been excused.

It's because of all the waiting around and not being sworn in, that court ushers/clerks understand the frustration. I called in sick on the penultimate day of my two week stint and clerk didn't even bother asking what was wrong with me, just said will excuse you now!

My husband got called up and it was the Old Bailey in London so I was genuinely worried he’d have quite a long and emotionally draining case.

Fortunately it was a case that lasted about 2 weeks and was a drug case so no deaths/animal cruelty etc.

He said there was lots of waiting around and also they got an allowance for the canteen everyday which I think was his highlight!

Did jury service 15 years ago.

2 cases: 1 sexual assualt, 2: physical assualt.
Both times, was shocked how biased follow jurors were and not that bright. Also very sexist. The loudest got heard and if you disagreed you got bullied.
Didn't get paid, got expenses.
How as a woman the law, courts and police really aren't in our favour and it just boils down to what we wear.

No tea/coffee.

I'm a court journalist and keep getting picked. I have to keep pointing out why I can't do it but they just keep deferring.

I can see why people would find it interesting but many cases can be long and technical and others can be pretty horrific.

To be honest, it takes a certain kind of mind to be able to process the worst kind of stuff all the time so I don't blame people for being reluctant to do it.

That sounds awful 😪

@Chickenkeev it is really important that you don't discuss the case outside your fellow jurors. If it is found that you have done so you can be prosecuted and the case will need to be retried. Surely you could manage not to talk about it, even with your husband! You just be able to keep other people's secrets/confidences? This is no different. If you can't do that I hope none of your family or friends are telling you anything they don't want you to tell anyone else.

You could tell him you are upset, but not why you are upset. He can (and should) know you are on jury duty, but not why details of the case. You can talk to him about it after it is all over.

I've been called twice, but had grounds to refuse.
The real reason was that the money they would have paid was less than a third of what I was earning, & I couldn't afford it.

I did jury service in London in the 70s. In the 3 weeks we were on the case it was fascinating how closely the jurors bonded. it was a complex case and we all took our role very seriously. There were frequent pauses whilst the judge explained various procedural issues to us.There were also a few comedy moments eg a key witness was asked “ you say you saw xx doing xy “. The answer “ no sir I did not “ destroyed a key part of the prosecution case and we had to smother our laughter.
We found the man not guilty . He cried and thanked every member of the jury from across the court.
i felt the process showed the strengths of our legal system. I would love to do it again.

I'm 3 months off my76th birthday, the cut off age, and I got the letter yesterday! It will mean a 1 1/2 hour journey with quite a walk at the end or a 1 hour drive with no guarantee of parking nearby! Apparently they call over 100 people in one group and you sit around waiting to be summoned to a court and it's a 10 day commitment with a chance you may not be called at all.
As I don't sleep very well and usually have a couple of hours on the afternoon not sure how I'll cope and as for old lady needing the loo on a regular basis..............!

oh yes, my friend did a case at the high court and said she went a different way home every night cos the family / friends of the accused were all leaving at the same time as the jury and she didn't feel safe.

Thankfully only had to be there 4 days due to lack of judges.

There was a lot of sitting around waiting. I was allocated a sexual assault case. We kept being sent in and out. The jury room was horrible, the foreman decided as there was no dna evidence that the verdict must be not guilty and that was that. We were also pushed into making a decision as someone wanted to go. It was a shocking experience, the court usher was bemused by some of us not wanting sandwiches as it would interfere with our ability to concentrate. I had flashbacks for a couple of weeks. It’s not something I’d like to go through again.

For us we weren’t allowed out of the building if allocated to a trial but there was a cafe onsite. If we were in the deliberations room it was sandwiched only.

I'm going in two weeks.
Will let you know!

My DM was called twice but was excused because she was the main carer for my disabled sibling. Said sibling is no longer under her care, but she's not been called again since, so she's either just got lucky or she was put on some sort of permanently excused list.

Another relative was a police officer. He got called up a couple of times too but was obviously excused. Given that it was in the area that he worked he'd have probably known most of the defendants!

Yeah, I did it once, was foreperson on both cases. One was a simple theft case, the other was a sexual assault case.

The latter was completely in the balance and nobody could really decide while the prosecution was laying out their case, until the defence pulled an absolute blinder with their first and only piece of evidence proving that the whole thing was a false accusation and a waste of the court's time (since that piece of evidence was already in possession of the police and it should never have even reached the CPS - particularly since the defendant offered it to the police to prove it, and the prosecution actively obfuscated that part of the cautioned interview).

The judge even went so far as to apologise profusely to the defendant for the fact that it destroyed his life, recommended that he look into reporting the police and CPS for misconduct and gave the prosecution an absolute bollocking.

As a friend of mine once told me, though...jury duty is simultaneously the most interesting and most boring thing you'll ever do.

My husband has just been called up and we’re in a bit of a state as worried about the money. Two of our adult children are also mentally unwell and supported by services. My husband wfh full time and supports 1 whilst I work full time. One of our children has a distressing case of their own that has been accepted by the CPS and we’re waiting to hear the result of the summons.

Don’t know what to do. We’re coping with so much at the moment. It’s laughable that this has just landed. Dh disappearing for several weeks causing additional money worries would literally break us. Also not sure he’d cope mentally with the two running alongside or a case he was put on being similar to one we’re having to think about for our child.

What do we do? We’ve only got a couple of days before we have to reply.

I did it for 2 weeks, 2 different cases, one for fraud and one for violence.
What amazed me was how stupid some of my fellow jurors were. One lady said "their lawyer isn't very good, she's making them look like they did it" - she was talking about the lawyer for the prosecution! I don't know what she thought the 2 lawyers for the defence were there for. We had some relatively simple financial documents to look at, and I'm really not good at maths but could grasp them with some work, but she said there was no point looking at them as she wouldn't understand.
The second case was a man who'd glassed someone in a pub for no reason, we had cctv. he claimed it was "reasonable self defence" but there was absolutely no threat to him. Some jurors were saying it was reasonable "because in some pubs you've got to act in self defence before anything even starts" - no, the guy on trial had literally started it himself? We had to return a hung jury verdict because some people couldn't see how glassing someone unprovoked was unreasonable.
the idea of a "jury of your peers" scares me because there's a lot of people out there who see things differently!

Why would you be exempt as a court journalist? Judges, solicitors and barristers are no longer exempt so I don’t understand why a court journalist would be?

How long between getting the letter and being called up is it?

Are you going to make some useful contribution, rather than trying to catch people out? Are you a law student, by any chance?

My DH ended up being on a case for six months! It took a big emotional toll on him after they gave the verdict. He was very lucky his employer paid for some of the time he was away, but it was a big financial hit when that ran out. He got a letter saying he would never be called again, but after that we got home insurance with cover for jury duty in case I ever am.

DH did it a year ago, very tedious because he wasn’t driving so it took nearly 3 hours by public transport. He quite enjoyed it I think.
I dread being called, I’m profoundly deaf and I lipread. Apparently you’re offered a sign language person which is of absolutely no use to me as I don’t know BSL!

I’m a senior lawyer 😂. I’m just interested in the topic and surprised by some of the comments people have posted because they aren’t what I understand to be the law but if they have actually happened to those commentators then I clearly need to refresh my knowledge of this area