To think jury service was a waste of my time

[Harriette678]

Spent the whole week last week waiting around, didn’t get picked. Then was on call, then told I didn’t need to come back.

I’m so utterly disappointed as I really wanted to serve on a jury, and overall it felt like an utter waste of my time arranging childcare for a potential two weeks that in the end was just sitting around not getting picked. I had to have it in place just in case, due to my circumstances. Just gutted really lol

anyone else have a similar experience?

There is an important reason for all the hanging around. I’ve worked on the prosecution side . It is still the defendants right to admit guilt right up to the start of a trial and receive a reduction in the sentence.

If they plead at the first hearing usually at least 6m-1yr before the trial they get 1/3 off. Anytime after that, 1/4 off and 1/10 on the day of the trial. The defendant plays a game of probability.

The preparation for a crown court trial is huge. The burden is on the prosecution to prove the defendant guilty. Therefore most enter a NG plea at the start and wait to see what evidence the prosecution come up with. This involves months and months of work, getting expert witnesses available for court, paying the costs of prosecuting counsel, hotels and food expenses for every witness who doesn’t live within a reliable commuting distance to make sure everyone is ready before the trial begins. Getting a court room booked out for the a couple of weeks, sometimes much longer.

Add to that the massive job of criminally underfunded CPS in just paginating and printing sufficient bundles for all jurors, judge, prosecutors and defence… only for the defendant to change his plea the night before to claim his 1/4 reduction. Having seen the weight of evidence against him months previously through disclosure from the prosecution.

The defendant would of known this long before the trial but it costs them nothing to leave it until the last minute and the public purse a fortune and of course no need for a jury so your time is wasted to until a floating (non fixed ) trial replaced it - but they too will plead and so on..

This is what needs to be changed. 1/3 off for a plea at the earliest opportunity. They KNOW if they are guilty or not. No credit at all for a late change of plea. That might change the overwork for all the trial prep and costs and help the courts use their time better. Perhaps a slight reduction at the half way point months before court allocation. Unfortunately the late plea reduction encourages guilty defendants to take it to the wire

This

It suggests that the privileges of a good education and a comfortable retirement are disproportionately skewed toward white people. It was a criticism of our society.

I’d always wanted to do it, got a bloody horrible case and hated every minute of it. You had a lucky escape!

That was exactly my experience, but that’s the deal. You are available to serve on a jury, not guaranteed to be selected. I didn’t get a case in 2024, DH had a short, hilarious case in 2017, my brother had a long case recently that left him so traumatised he was in therapy afterwards.

Sorry, I didn’t read it like that and misunderstood

I was called up last year, sat in a hot room with a lot of other people for four long days. Not one of us was called and after four days we were all let go . Very disappointing, I’m retired, so no worries about work or childcare but such a waste of time.

It really doesnt.

We know that currently there is a huge bias against non-white and immigrant residents of the uk. Look at the views of the right wingers who think that all immigrants are criminals and out to scrounge benefits.

The vast majority of volunteers would be late middle aged/retired white men who can afford the time and cost to serve (a lot of people's costs isnt covered by the recompense offered, I know my colleague's wasnt for childcare, some was but they were still out of pocket). A lot of people simply dont care about this sort of thing or just dont want to. End result? A biased jury because there is an under representation of all stakeholders in society. Its why the "no choice" system was brought in, precisely to stop this kind of thing happening.

My father for example, would love to be on a jury but he is in his 70's, well off and racist. He thinks he isnt but he is. To be introduced to a man with a foreign sounding name accused of shoplifting, his mind would be made up in that one minute.

I had the same. I waited around for 3 days manager ru get into a trial ended after a day it was dismissed we were not told the reason just told it was legal processes. The judge then said we didn’t need to fine back the next week.
Felt thoroughly deflated. I felt we were treated like cattle tbh.

I misinterpreted @SereneFinch‘s post believing they meant anyone who wasn’t white would not be educated, retired, or would volunteer which I thought was racist. They have clarified and I have explained that I misunderstood.

I dunno OP, it goes both ways. I have done it twice. The first time I had a similar experience to you. The second time I ended spending a month listening to the horrific actions of an utter scumbag, complete with awful photos. He sat in the same room as me all that time. Think I would have preferred to go home.

My apologies. It could be read both ways in fairness!

In reference to my own post....my father will be aged out of service in January, I am keeping my fingers crossed that no one in the Civil Service has a brain fart and calls him up!

I think this is one of those "be careful what you wish for" things.

A lot of people seem to get their knowledge of jury service from TV shows which dont, for good reason, show the truly awful things that humans can do to other humans or at least not in the detail jurors are shown in court.

I got to do 3 short trials. It was fascinating but so uncomfortable sitting in the tiny pews for hours on end, my back was agony.

By all means, say it is an inefficient system / annoyingly disruptive/ not financed properly (definitely true) etc but "waste of my time" is the wrong attitude. You are not the centre here. The victim and the accused are the people who matter in terms of whose needs should come first. Yes you weren't put on a jury and that might mean you didn't 'do' anything with your time. However, it's not some great treat you missed out on. Someone has been the victim of a crime. All you had to do was sit around. I was called for jury service, spent a few days in the waiting room reading a book and watching things on my phone then went home, grateful that I hadn't had to sit through anything gruesome or make a decision affecting other people's entire future.

I always thought I wanted to do jury service. Currently on week four of trial that could run until the start of next month...

I'd love to get picked. My BIL got chosen for a historal child murder in the local area but he couldn't get off work and was allowed to pass on it. Horrible case but "exciting" if you know what I mean. I'd love to be picked for something gritty. I watch too many crime shows 😆

Sorry OP,

YABVU. Jury duty is exactly that. Available for duty. It doesn't mean something has to happen to make it exciting for you.

Was the person found guilty? These cases are hard to prove

In my case, it was because the trials were cancelled or postponed: either the person decided to plead guilty after all or a witness got ill or something (we were of course not told what it was). After the first trial didn't happen, we were told we'd be jurors on another one, but then that one didn't happen either. So yes, two weeks hanging around the court waiting room.

But yes, preferable IMO to having to listen to horrific details, or make very difficult decisions.

In our system, you’re called for one day unless you are chosen for the jury, and then you have to stay for the duration.

Ive been called 3 times, once when I had small kids so I told them I didn’t have childcare and was excused.

The other two times, you have to phone the evening before to see who they want to show up, it can be only people with last name with B, or everyone from A-k etc.

When you arrive, you go in a waiting room, and both times for me, after about an hour, I was told to go home and given a small cheque. The second time I think my whole group was sent home, so they probably reached a plea bargain. And that’s it, if you show up and aren’t selected, you’re done for a few years, 4 or 5 I think.

While I will always show up if summoned, I have no desire to be on a jury.

I am gobsmacked that so many people actively want to serve on juries- I couldn’t imagine anything worse than winding up on a very harrowing case. Even if not that harrowing I am not sure I want that kind of decision making power over someone’s life!

I’m not saying I don’t agree with the jury system, but I hope I never get called up.

I sat on a jury about 6 years ago, the defendant has been in jail for 6 months 1st trial jury could not agree on a verdict, released and tagged for 6 months but had to leave the area, I was on 2nd jury lasted for 2 weeks found him not guilty on all charges, the evidence was just not here to convict him (the criterias is "you have to be sure" on his guilt not "beyond reasonable doubt"), was quite happy to see him walk he had gone through hell for 12 months for nothing. The jury system does involve a lot of sometimes wasted/dead time but it does protect the innocent and put the guilty away from society.

If you had ever been involved in a judicial review which is just like an non jury system a judge decides on the papers and no one actually attends court you would not be so keen to get rid of juries.

This.

Jury service is vital. We don't have an elite class of decision-makers that ordinary people cannot aspire to access, ordinary people make the decisions.

The system isn't perfect and has inefficiencies. You're never going to get a system that calls people up for jury duty which 100% of the time succeeds in bringing people in in groups of exact multiples of 12. Therefore either you aim to bring in 26 or 50 so that you have a whole number of full 12-person juries and 2 people who are spare if everyone shows up, or you aim to bring in people in multiples of 12 and you end up postponing someone's trial - potentially extending the suffering of an innocent person if they are innocent - if you get a no-show and only have 11.

I'm sorry you had a "wasted" day - but I don't think it was wasted. You having been called up and turning up was part of a process that allowed justice to be done that day, and a system that valued your time more highly and let you get on with your normal life for a week would necessarily lead to innocent people being on remand awaiting trial for longer and I think what happened is better tbh.