Missed Jury Duty

[cherryberry90]

As the subject explains

Was out earlier shopping, and came home and eldest daughter mentioned that a couple of officers were at my flat, basically for a missed appearance at Jury Duty

Do not wanna make things any worse than what they are now, scary thought what to do next

Any advice that would be helpful?

Huh?

They don't send the summons out recorded delivery so loads of people won't have got them due to strikes/moving/living in flats where the post isn't secure so I don't understand at all that the police turned up

I’ve had to do jury service twice. Once was deferred a year as I had a newborn that I was bf.

i can’t say that I looked forward to or enjoyed either stints and it was extremely inconvenient - it was 5 days a week when I worked pt at the time so sorting out additional childcare, missing parents evenings etc. was a pita but it is a legal requirement that we do this to make sure that our judicial system is as fair as possible.

Not wanting to do it or forgetting to call them is not excusable. There were plenty of people serving when I was there who had additional challenges to them doing their duty but they made it work.

@cherryberry90 please phone the police tonight on 111. Explain the situation and follow their advice. Not doing anything again will only make your situation worse.

They should give people a choice. If you agree then don’t turn up fair enough that’s an offence but there should be a choice in the first place. Forcing someone to do anything is never going to get the best from them. People should be able to opt out of the whole thing if they want to

How would they ever get a representative jury if people could just choice whether or not they fancy going?

Considering how lengthy jury service can be, and the fact the compensation for it is strictly controlled, can you not see that making it ‘opt out’ is a terrible idea?
it’s a fundamental part of our justice system. Without jurors, the whole system collapses. They also need to not just be people who ‘want’ to take part. A jury should reflect society, not just people interested in the courts. They have to be able to guarantee attendance, and that means stern consequences for not doing so.

You seem very chilled about it all 😂

Maybe it’s better to have a jury made up of people who want to be there and are taking it seriously instead of a representative jury where they’ve been summoned and might feel resentful about that

Indeed.

There are many pro's and con's of a jury. This is well researched and documented.

But it's the system we have, and by having random selection of the public means we get juries that on the whole are representing peers of society.

Nobody wants juries made up of criminal rubberneckers or do-gooders.

This is why it's not a volunteer situation.

I was called up for jury service, but the week I was due to attend we went in to the very first historic lockdown in March if 2020. I received a text message saying all courts had been stopped, and my service was no longer required.

I sighed a sigh of relief, I may or may not get called again. But if I am, I will go. It's a civic duty and essential to our justice system in my opinion.

I do see your point but I won’t be doing it as it will be impossible I’m not making myself Ill

I don’t see why they can’t just do things the way they do in magistrates courts ? Instead of having a jury

Clearly, you don't understand mental health. Poor MH can cause individuals to bury their heads in the sand, become forgetful, ignore things, not understand things properly, etc. There are many reasons as to why this person hasn't responded appropriately.

Don't panic OP, you'll probably just need to provide evidence of poor mental health. This probably happens more often than you think.

In my limited experience, a lot of people who want to do it would be very likely to judge the defendant on their appearance before anyone ever said a word. (not all- but a lot).
I'd rather the system we have now, flawed as it is.

You should have just asked to be excused. I have been called up 3 times and each time just wrote back with an excuse explaining why I couldn't do jury service and each time they have said they will put it off until another time.

I don't understand this. Was it definitely for jury duty or have you maybe been cited to give evidence in a criminal case? I work in a court ( in Scotland though so I appreciate it's maybe different up here) and have never heard of a potential juror being visited by the police. The citations for Jury Duty are not sent out recorded delivery so there is no proof that you even received the letter in the first place. Is this the first citation or have you been sent several? A witness citation is different however and if you failed to attend court to give evidence then a warrant for your arrest may be granted.

Did you just get one letter?
If so, play dumb, You didnt receive anything

Because the crimes being discussed are different and the punishments that are able to be given out, are different. The legal council required is also different.

Maximum custodial a magistrate can give out is 12months, they can also award fines, community orders and bans. In magistrates you would be represented by a solicitor. It's basically like a "lower court" and don't forget magistrates are often your peers working around their other jobs. There are also 3 magistrates present to hear your case.

Crown Court is the higher court, where the legal experience and knowledge is vast and required for the level of offences being discussed.

Even if you are arrested for murder and charged.

You will first appear in magistrates for your charge and plea. Then the magistrates escalate to crown court.

Unbelievable that you didn't bother to turn up, do you realise how flipping serious that is???

I did Jury Service and one person didn't show, as a consequence we and several others had to sit in a confined room for hours staring at the walls until they could locate the person. Totally wasting everyone's time and money and caused a delay to the case starting.

An undiagnosed condition is not going to cut it is you are called

*if

I was thinking the same...Why on earth are people getting arrested for something like that?! They aren't criminals!

Has it changed? You used to be only able to defer once and if you couldn't do it the second time then you were removed from the list.

I didn't have to provide any evidence at all,just rang the number on the letter and said I was starting a college course. A year later I was called again and was about to start a new job and so I was removed from the list.

Here England and Wales.

You get fair notice of a jury summons.

Initial summons received (pink letter) you are requested to reply to, forget to do that they will send you a reminder. (Another pink letter) fail to do that they send you a warning.

You also get about 4+ months notice of when you will be needed.

I was summoned in December 2019 to then be told I'd be required in early March 2020. Didn't due it due to lockdown.

It's not just a one letter job fail to reply/attend and police come knocking. Hence why the prosecution of it is a bit of a given.

You could argue you didn't receive one letter, but not receiving 3 or 4 where the writing on the envelope gets more red, and more IMPORTANT.

It's basically designed in a way that favours prosecution for failure to reply/attend.

Now you can argue the "fairness" of that, absolutely. But you get more than one chance to answer the summons.

I don’t see why they can’t just do things the way they do in magistrates courts ? Instead of having a jury

The right to a trial by a jury of one's peers is a fundamental part of our justice system, going back many centuries.

We aren't required to do much to contribute to the society we live in - turn out and vote every so often - and even that isn't compulsory - serve on a jury when called, maybe once or twice in a lifetime - it's not a lot to ask.

I'm a bit unsure what I think here.

On the one hand, OP, I think there's more leniency for people who've struggled to understand the process than some posts on this thread suggest. For years I worked with students who were mostly young adults, and a few of them were picked for jury duty, and I can't think of a single one who understood right off the bat that this was 1) mandatory and 2) a serious issue that you couldn't get out of easily. Pretty much every time the students came back saying how there were loads of other people in the same boat, and everything was explained very carefully and without any judgment. I'm sure this would be the case for you, OP, if you just rang up and explained you'd not understood the process. It can't be uncommon.

On the other hand - I really think it's unfair and unethical to say you can't do jury service on the grounds you describe.

I had a student who was all of 19 when he had to be a juror on what turned out to be an extremely nasty case. It traumatised him, and he wasn't the only one. I know there was all sorts of preparation and discussion and I'm sure everything was done to minimise the harm of what he had to think about, but the bottom line was that it was really pretty upsetting. Jury service is likely to be upsetting. It's also (as a PP says) what we have as a system. It has its pros and cons and if you passionately believe you know of a better system you could campaign for that. What is not on, is to say that you think you should be allowed to opt out because you feel it'd be hard going.