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?

i did it recently and was super excited! I got an absolutely AWFUL case and having to listen to the evidence was really distressing! It went on for nearly 3 weeks in the end

I don't think i'd want to do it again if at all possible

ON the bright side I made some really good friends with the other jurors and some of us still meet up for a drink from time to time!

I’ve been called four times and dismissed because as a social worker I would apparently be biased. Every social worker colleague I know that has been called has been dismissed on the same basis 😂 I actually like to think we would be one of the more impartial professions 😂

I did jury service at the end of 2020. The logistics were rather complicated because of Covid restrictions. It was at a Crown Court which has several court rooms. All the different juries were kept apart and had their own waiting rooms.
It was a murder trial with 2 defendants and a 3rd for assisting after the crime. The trial was predicted to take 6 weeks. The Friday before the trial was supposed to start one of the defendants pleaded guilty to the murder which caused a slight delay. After the first day the case against the 3rd person was dismissed because of lack of evidence. In the end the case took 3.5 weeks with 3 days of deliberations. We had the option of giving a verdict of manslaughter which we did. The jury was an interesting mix of people including 2 Polish people who were worried at the start about language problems. In the end they had no trouble understanding. There was a lot of hanging about and moving between the waiting and court rooms.
I don’t work so only received travel and lunch expenses. In usual times you can claim for public transport but not parking. We were allowed to park in the court car park and claim a mileage allowance because they didn’t want us catching Covid.
I received the expenses about a month after the trial but there was Christmas and New Year in between.
I’m exempt from being called again for 10 years. The usual exemption period is 2 years but the judge has discretion to increase that if the case is difficult. Some juries are exempt forever eg Shipman. I’m 60 now so there’s still a chance I could be called again in 7 years.

I've just finished mine. First time I've been called and I'm in my 50s.

I had to turn down work as a freelancer which I couldn't recoup so I lost A LOT of money. I did want to do my civic duty but it was a bit of a pain to be honest, wasn't called for the whole first week but had to be 'on call' so was unable to go back to work.

The second week we had a case that lasted the week. It was an absolute farce, -robbery and threat to commit assault.

The police had no evidence recorded, it was completely he said/she said with every witness clearly lying their hole off and completely contradicting everyone else about absolutely everything.

So we had no choice but to find the accused Not Guilty ( even though he almost certainly was) because in the absence of the police doing their bloody job correctly and taking statements etc, we had no other choice.

We started at 10am most mornings ( although court farting about meant nothing happened before 11) with lunch between 1-2 and were finished by 4. That's your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.

@BlueDaisy I would definitely apply to be excused.

Many people are excused for far less. Just stress how things are on your worst days and mention the financial aspect as a secondary consideration but how this also would seriously affect your disabled dc.

Good luck!

I've been called twice, when I was 19 and 23. However, I was away at university on both occasions and I was able to decline it both times to prevent failing my courses. I would like to do it one day, maybe when I'm semi/retired.

I've been called twice. Old Bailey first time! Murder charge and second time a rape charge. Awful both times.

I did it. Boring as hell. Take a good book. Just one of those things where you do your bit & then move on. I had a couple of jurors who were terribly excited. Good for them.

I was called a couple of years ago to a London crown court and it was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. I was sitting on a very violent rape case. You're given no support before about what you might hear / see (we had to look at photographic evidence) and there is no aftercare either. I consider myself a pretty tough person, but I had nightmare for weeks after, which got to the point I broke down in the office one day and had to get counselling, which luckily I was able to get quickly and for free through my companies private medical insurance.

The court staff were also horrible and had no empathy. It started within 15mins of turning up and the person reading out the names of fellow jurors said 'if you've got a foreign name I won't be able to pronounce it so come and check the list', you get the idea...

I hope to god I never get called again. Be very careful what you wish for.

Your last paragraph is incorrect I'm afraid - the court will only pay a maximum of £64.95 (rising to £129.91 after 10 days) a day. So if your employer doesn't pay, then you can be massively out of pocket, especially on a long case.

My daughter was called up as she was literally sitting her A'level exams. She managed to postpone it for a couple of weeks and did do it. She seemed to handle it ok even though it wasn't a nice case.

I did jury duty a couple of years ago and was disappointed that I only got on to one, very short and boring, case.

There is no guarantee that you even will get a case.

I am still hoping that I get called again.

Has that changed? I've definitely regularly seen invoices totalling exactly their loss of earnings, on numerous occasions.

Yes you can! Pay is well under what most people earn

I've done it twice 10 years apart, first time I had just been made redundant
A few small cases, discharged half way through 2nd week
2nd time took 3 weeks, I was paid by my employer
Could claim back a small amount each day for lunch, parking and travel
If you are self employed you do lose out as can only claim a certain amount
I'm glad I did it but I hope I don't get called again

I did it when I was 19 and it was horrific. The judge excused us for 10 years but said he hoped none of us would be called up again (he said he couldn’t excuse us forever).

The aftercare was absolutely non existent. We heard and saw the most horrific things for many weeks and then at the end it was pretty much “right thanks for that, off you go”.

I hope it’s much better now

Invoices to whom? You don’t invoice the court for loss of earnings, the juror fills in a loss of earnings form and is paid directly up to the (paltry) maximum.

Laptops are allowed now, but only whilst you are waiting about as are phones
You are just warned not to Google anything about the case

Sadly that is completely untrue. The most you can claim is £64 a day unless it's a long trial. Some employers pay you anyway but there's no obligation. We're going to lose £££ when DH does his service.

The court staff were also horrible and had no empathy. It started within 15mins of turning up and the person reading out the names of fellow jurors said 'if you've got a foreign name I won't be able to pronounce it so come and check the list', you get the idea...

@Chocolatelabradorsarethebest

Were you at Croydon? We had very similar while I was there. We had a really nice usher for most of our case but a lot of them seemed like brusque jobsworths.

@SquigglePigs check your house insurance, if you have legal cover it also generally covers you for loss of earnings

Yes, I've done JD in a Crown Court. It affected me and also my relationship. I was never quite the same again after it. I dread to be called up again. I was under the impression that if you've done it once, you can be excused if called again but annoyingly found out last week that that isn't the case.

For those in employment and whose employers do not pay them for their JD absence, you'll likely be out of pocket. Unless it's changed since I did it many years ago, they covered my bus fare but the other expenses were nowhere near enough to cover my salary and living on my own at the time with a high mortgage (bought in a peak), meant being left in a real financial predicament. I really do hope it's changed since back then as it's really unfair to put people who haven't asked to be called for JD to risk defaulting on their mortgages or rent.

In terms of the day to day, for the first three days was boring, sat in a room waiting. Then we were called, told it would be a long case, were only allowed to say no if you could prove you had a holiday booked. You need to be alert during the case, listen to everything, you have the defendants only metres away from you, watching you. Sitting there for hours dying to use the loo but cannot leave. You're not allowed to discuss the case with anyone.

Then when you go to deliberations, that was just awful. Shut in a room with 11 others, when you cannot agree, there are arguments. Not allowed to leave the room without permission from the judge. No privacy to use the toilet as only a door between you and the 11 others, within the room. One juror who I got on with really well at the start, well we ended up shouting at each other when we couldn't agree on a verdict. It was awful, he turned really nasty.

You will likely have other jurors who just want the power of sending someone to jail, regardless of whether there is the evidence to return a guilty verdict or not.

It's extremely frustrating.

No idea why so many people are dying to be called up for it.

Yes I have but it was about 20 years ago. It was interesting. I was on two cases. Found one not guilty and another guilty. I still feel a little bad about sending someone to prison as, although he had certainly done what he was accused of, it turned out that he was quite vulnerable. I often think about him and hope that things looked up for him at some point.

My grandad got called up last week. He's 92.

Lunch facilities rubbish and the allowance isn't quite enough to buy a cup of tea morning and afternoon and a sandwich and hot drink at lunchtime. You couldn't even bring a teabag from home because they charged for hot water.
I was shocked that they'd leave people out of pocket when they are giving up their time and greatly inconveniencing themselves.

And if you’re retired you don’t get any compensation for the voluntary work you’ve missed or any of the other activities you have planned.