I really disliked Jury service..

[evaangel2]

I found it un interesting and intimidating tbh...did anyone else feel like this?

I weaseled out of it

most court stuff is dull.

Did it once at the Old Bailey about 15 years ago and really enjoyed it! Would love to do it again.

I found it really interesting, but my case was quite 'good.'

Someone serving at the same time as me did 10 days of a corporate fraud case and nearly died of boredom.

I love court and miss it dearly. I find criminal law fascinating. Sorry you found it so rubbish eva, it is an incredibly important and necessary job. I will get stuck on a customs case if I get called up for jury duty - yawn!

Why was it intimidating?

DH said his person was guilty as sin but they couldn't give that verdict as no real hard evidence! He did enjoy it though, the days he wasn't thumb twiddling in the canteen

It was both tedious and shocking.

Tedious because there was an unbelievable amount of hanging around.

Shocking because of the overt racism of my fellow jurors. First case involved a young black woman. We, the jurors, were sent to our room to ponder our verdict. First thing that was said, pretty much, "well, it's obvious she's guilty, these black people are all the same".

I would love to do jury service but am barred. To OP what did you find intimdating?

I loved it (possibly for slightly shallow reasons) didn't get an awful case.got childcare paid for, spent most of time without any court time at all, which i spent doing work that otherwise would have had to have done around childcare. At othertimes got released so did all christmas shopping.
This is probably not what you meant Op?

Interesting. I have always thought I would want to do it but only on an interesting case that wasn't too distressing. But you can't pick and choose can you. I don't know anyone who has done it.

I did it 5 yrs ago and mostly I found it interesting both for watching the process in action and the discussions in the jury room which were surprisingly thorough
but there was boredom in between cases they were both short trials

BIWI - Alas, juries are made up from a selection of ordinary members of the public and that is the attitude of many people. Which is why the decision is unanimous, or majority by a minimum of 10-2.

MollieO - Why are barred, if you don't mind me asking. If it is too scandalous to share, no worries!

I enjoyed it, did a really long case, 2 1/2 months! Until we had to discuss the verdicts, then things got complicated. We were discussing for a week, all day, not allowed out for sandwiches, or cigs, and in a room with 11 people you wouldn't ordinarily spend time with. ARGH! Some people get very power hungry!

You shouldn't have found it intimidating, we had some good rows though!

An important role to do, I think, and it was interesting, like being in an episode of Perry Mason, I kept turning round when thry referred to the jury, didn't sink it it was me!

I was on the Jury for a GBH case. Several guys had attacked a mixed group outside a nightclub. It was areally vicious incident. The evidence was really clear, and the one guy they actually caught offered nothing in his own defence apart from he was now working with "disabled people".

The judge spent ages explaining the law about "joint enterprise" ie if you enter into criminal behaviour jointly it doesn;t matter exactly who did what when IFYSWIM.

To my complete shock, most of the Jury felt SORRY for the guy. No one doubted he was there and involved, but "we can't be sure it was him that kicked the young girl in the head" etc etc No one felt sorry for the victims! There was me and one other guy arguing the point of law, and at the end the rest agreed he was guilty, but only agreed he was guilty when the other guy assured them he was bound to get a non-custodial sentence.

The "poor" chap got sent to prison for 18 months. He had a history of similar stuff. The other Jurors wouldn't speak to me after that!

I thought it was a fascinating experience, but it did shock me a bit that you have the right to be judged by your peers but that those peers seem to be incapable of understanding a case and the Law despite really clear explanations. This was a relatively minor case, but.....

I'm a lawyer so can't do jury service. In the USA you can. I used to work for a very well respected trial lawyer in New York. He was the last person anyone would want on a jury so spent his entire jury service being rejected at the selection stage by other trial lawyers who were worried about his influence in the jury room!

Spent 2 weeks on Jury Service. Never got called for a case. Spent the whole 2 weeks in the Jury room knitting squares for a Romanian orphanage.

Need I say more (would still be willing to sit on a Jury).

I did Jury Service in the Coroners Court very interesting. I would love to do it again.

Personally I would never do it. I dread getting a summons for it. They have been trying to get dh to do it for months but he's a police officer in the district they want him to do jury service. He knows 99% of the defendants and works on their cases. They still keep asking him though.

Interesting that people have such differing experiences of it.

i did wonder why they'd picked me and felt out of my depth a bit, was quite young when i did it. was boring gbh case though.

i also did coroner's court which was quite sad .

Someone I knwo well did it and went on to being a JP

I always wonder how people cope doing cases that last a long time.

MollieO Im pretty sure they have changed that rule - you can now be called for jury service - the only reason you couldnt sit on a particular trial was if you knew a member of the trial team of defendants

I did 6 weeks, met a variety of people I wouldn't otherwise have (made one friend too) and got an insight into the whole process. It was ultimately frustrating, though, as we had to find them "not guilty", although I'm 100% convinced of their guilt.

Yes lawyers and judges can be.