Jury Service

Suvv

Suvv

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Kev
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I have just received my 4th summons for jury service. There is supposed to be a 35% chance of someone serving on a jury in England & Wales during their lifetime. I wish I was as lucky in other things.
Has anyone else been selected numerous times? my niece's partner has been 5 times so far!
 
I was never called... I am now too old.

I have been called as a witness twice. One of those times I was not needed or called in.

I have taken a company to the small claims court once (and won)

That is the total of my court adventures.
 
I thought that I was too old but the limit is 75 now.
I am sure that they choose retired people so that they do not have to pay for loss of earnings, they will not even have to pay my fares as I have a Freedom pass.
I will get £5.71 per day and the court does not have a restaurant, still I expect that there are some cheap places to eat in London !
 
I have never been called. My sister must have been 4 or 5 times though.
My wife has been summoned for Jury service around 3 times but has managed to get out of all of them.
 
Twice

On the second occasion I asked for a deferral and I eventually got a letter excusing me from any future jury service.

In both instances as far as I can recall they were in the 1980's

PS AFAIK the chances/frequency of being asked is influenced by how busy the court is and the size the 'local' pool of possible jurors.
 
The Citizen's advice bureau states that there is no age limit in Scotland now, but if you are 71 or over you can ask never to serve on a jury.
Re the OP's question I have a friend that has served on a jury four times in about 20 years. I have a neighbour who has also served on juries four times (the latest was last summer) and recently has again received a citation for further jury service.
I don't believe that the system is entirely random. It could well be that if you attend for jury service you may become classed as "reliable".
I have twice wasted part of my life on jury service and they would no longer find me as reliable (even if it meant going into a court room with a dose of the self inflicted runs !).
 
I got a letter for jury service a couple of years ago but was excused from going on account of my deafness and my role as a home carer looking after an elderly mother.

Also, about 10 years ago I requested to be a witness to a work's tribunal by a disgruntled worker who resigned on his own accord but decided to take the boss to court anyway, but I refused to go on account of me still working for the same boss and firm at the time. I never had any issues with the way the workplace was being run and I got on well with the boss so I couldn't have it on my conscience if the ex-worker actually won his case. As it happened the ex-worker lost outright and ended up having to pay court costs and fees . . . and the next day I got into my car and it wouldn't start with a strong smell of petrol - the fuel line was cut. I had a good guess who did it but the person in question simply disappeared without a trace overnight and was never seen or heard of ever since.
 
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Got a letter once, got excused due to my work rotation, got another letter where I was on my time off, ended up getting selected and spending a week in the high court, found it pretty interesting but at least I've got a few years off from doing it again.
 
I've never been called, my wife did though when she was pregnant, but got excused
 
Suvv said:
I will get £5.71 per day and the court does not have a restaurant, still I expect that there are some cheap places to eat in London !
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I wouldn't expect too much for just over a fiver
 
Ian D J said:
I got a letter for jury service a couple of years ago but was excused from going on account of my deafness and my role as a home carer looking after an elderly mother.

I also was requested to be a witness to a work's tribunal about 10 years ago by a worker who resigned on his own accord but decided to take the boss to court anyway, but I refused to go on account of me still working for the same boss and firm at the time. I never had any issues with the way the workplace was being run and I got on well with the boss so I couldn't have it on my conscience if the disgruntled ex-worker actually won his case. As it happened the ex-worker lost outright and ended up having to pay court costs and fees . . . and the next day I got into my car and it wouldn't start with a strong smell of petrol - the fuel line was cut. I had a good guess who did it but the person in question simply disappeared without a trace overnight and was never seen or heard of ever since.
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That is one of the realities of the criminal justice system. If you testify against lowlifes don't expect any protection. Even if you are considered deserving of protection it will fall short of being comprehensive. I have been in courts where witnesses for defence and prosecution shared the same unsupervised waiting room. All sorts of menacing criminal vermin seem to hang about the public areas in courts.
 
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I’ve been called 4 times. The last one I did was a terrorism case at the Old Bailey that lasted 7 months.

We got talking to another jury that we’d see all the time in the canteen. These people turned out to be the jury in the Jubilee Line Extension fraud case that involved huge amounts of financial and accounting evidence. They’d been there for nearly two years, then the case collapsed and they were all discharged, so they didn’t even get to make a decision. :oops: :$
 
By the way, be careful what you wish for. My ex wife was always complaining that I’d been called up several times while she’d never been called once. She finally did get summoned and ended up on a jury in a really horrible rape case that gave her nightmares for months afterwards. :(
 
I have done Jury service 3 times (twice at the same court) but interestingly I was called the three times while living in 3 different locations not connected by anything other than me living there.

An interesting exercise to do once, but not sure I needed to do it 3 times, especially when halfway through a case on the 3rd stint they forgot (or didn't manage to) bring the defendant to court from jail.

My only real concern was having to walk into and out of court with the family/friends of the defendants - especially if they had just been sentenced. Quite easy for someone to follow you home, see you get in your car etc.

D
 
boogie man said:
I’ve been called 4 times. The last one I did was a terrorism case at the Old Bailey that lasted 7 months.

We got talking to another jury that we’d see all the time in the canteen. These people turned out to be the jury in the Jubilee Line Extension fraud case that involved huge amounts of financial and accounting evidence. They’d been there for nearly two years, then the case collapsed and they were all discharged, so they didn’t even get to make a decision. :oops: :$
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Dumb question but did that mean you spent 7 months in court? What about work etc??? Always wondered about cases that take longer than 2 weeks?
 
DG Phototraining said:
Never been called thankfully, but oddly I also don't know of anyone who has either - so some of you are just damned unlucky :D

Dave
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Something awry about a system where the same people get called multiple times and others never.
Most things involving the law seem to be plagued with endless faffing and fannying about so what can you expect.
 
I was called once in the mid-80's but was living/working in Germany at the time so was excused. Not been called since.
I too would like to know how it works if you are on a 7-month or longer case, taking (in the example mentioned) 2 years of your life is surely untenable?
 
Constant postponements with no reasons provided as to why, hanging about a dingy building with terrible facilities and sharing rooms with the accused, pathetic compensation for loss of earnings, almost zero parking available, zero appreciation shown by staff or Magistrate/Judge (in fact usually quite rude and condescending), typically an insulting sentence handed out if any at all after you've wasted so much of your own time....etc, etc

It's not exactly appealing to assist the judiciary system. I've never, ever been called for Jury Duty on multiple occasions and until they sort out the above I suspect never will be. Or until they start using Recorded Delivery.
 
The problem is if everybody gave excuses and did not sit on a jury, as I was tempted to do, how would our sentencing system work? Leave it up to the judges and the CPS or let the police decide? Most alternatives are worse than what we have at the moment. I agree about the facilities and the time wasting though.
As I am retired I expect I will get other jury members saying that it is OK for me as I am not losing any money, I usually ask them if they would come in at the weekend and give up their free time for £5.71 a day.
 
Suvv said:
The problem is if everybody gave excuses and did not sit on a jury, as I was tempted to do, how would our sentencing system work? Leave it up to the judges and the CPS or let the police decide? Most alternatives are worse than what we have at the moment. I agree about the facilities and the time wasting though.
As I am retired I expect I will get other jury members saying that it is OK for me as I am not losing any money, I usually ask them if they would come in at the weekend and give up their free time for £5.71 a day.
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But how qualified are the jurors? We all have our prejudices and morals.
 
cambsno said:
Dumb question but did that mean you spent 7 months in court? What about work etc??? Always wondered about cases that take longer than 2 weeks?
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Yes we were there for 7 months solid, bar a few days when there were bank holidays or the barristers were discussing legal arguments that the jury weren’t allowed to hear.

When you’re called for jury service, it’s a jury summons, so it’s a legal requirement that you attend. Your employer can’t do anything about it and they have to continue to pay you as normal. As it happens, the judge in our case took the decision that the court would pay us after three months, due to it being such a long case. It’s hard for self employed people of course, they only get a fixed amount paid per week and also possibly lose business while they’re serving.

During the jury selection process you do get a chance to talk to the judge if you think you won’t be able to serve on a long case. So if you have regular hospital appointments, unbreakable work commitments, child care problems etc etc then, and IF you get a sympathetic judge, you might get excused, but it’s down to the judge and it’s not guaranteed. On our case, they had to start with a panel of over a hundred potential jurors to ensure they’d get 12 by the end of selection.
 
gman said:
Constant postponements with no reasons provided as to why, hanging about a dingy building with terrible facilities and sharing rooms with the accused, pathetic compensation for loss of earnings, almost zero parking available, zero appreciation shown by staff or Magistrate/Judge (in fact usually quite rude and condescending), typically an insulting sentence handed out if any at all after you've wasted so much of your own time....etc, etc

It's not exactly appealing to assist the judiciary system. I've never, ever been called for Jury Duty on multiple occasions and until they sort out the above I suspect never will be. Or until they start using Recorded Delivery.
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You never share a room with the accused. You only ever see them in the court room.

And how do you know the court staff are rude or condescending if you’ve never been on jury service? That’s certainly never been my experience in four stints.
 
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arclight said:
Something awry about a system where the same people get called multiple times and others never.
Most things involving the law seem to be plagued with endless faffing and fannying about so what can you expect.
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People are called randomly from the electoral roll. It’s purely luck down to the luck of the draw.
 
cambsno said:
But how qualified are the jurors? We all have our prejudices and morals.
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Does being "qualified" as juror (whatever that may be) mean somebody would be less prejudicial or more/less moral.
Surely the fact that there are 12 jurors limits the probability of them all being to the right of Attila the Hun or to the left of Jeremy Corbyn.
 
boogie man said:
Yes we were there for 7 months solid, bar a few days when there were bank holidays or the barristers were discussing legal arguments that the jury weren’t allowed to hear.

When you’re called for jury service, it’s a jury summons, so it’s a legal requirement that you attend. Your employer can’t do anything about it and they have to continue to pay you as normal. As it happens, the judge in our case took the decision that the court would pay us after three months, due to it being such a long case. It’s hard for self employed people of course, they only get a fixed amount paid per week and also possibly lose business while they’re serving.

During the jury selection process you do get a chance to talk to the judge if you think you won’t be able to serve on a long case. So if you have regular hospital appointments, unbreakable work commitments, child care problems etc etc then, and IF you get a sympathetic judge, you might get excused, but it’s down to the judge and it’s not guaranteed. On our case, they had to start with a panel of over a hundred potential jurors to ensure they’d get 12 by the end of selection.
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Wow, if I was self employed i would do anything i could to avoid it then, if you are a small trader for example that could kill your business and earnings. Same to for a small business! Am guessing that holidays would be taken into account but what about other things you need days off for... its not healthy to work 7 months with few breaks, or for things like childcare.
 
DG Phototraining said:
Never been called thankfully, but oddly I also don't know of anyone who has either - so some of you are just damned unlucky :D

Dave
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I’ve never been called - but my 1st wife, 2nd wife and a girlfriend I lived with for a couple of years have all served.

Oddly I really want to do it and none of them did :(
 
Phil V said:
I’ve never been called - but my 1st wife, 2nd wife and a girlfriend I lived with for a couple of years have all served.

Oddly I really want to do it and none of them did :(
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My attention span is too short, and I'm a fidget too, so that'd annoy everyone. I also like a mid aft nap, which is probably frowned upon :D

Dave
 
I've been called for service twice and appeared.

I was foremen twice and I'll never forget the cases and what went on between jurors and during deliberations. Overall it was an interesting experience but also upsetting.

Some people I know would just love to go and my experience is opposite to Phils as I know quite a few women who'd love it. My sister was recently called and was just about overjoyed but she ended up disappointed as she only got one case and it involved being called, walking in a sitting down and then it was cancelled. I was on three cases over the two times I was called.

I was called once as a witness, a totally different experience.
 
arclight said:
That is one of the realities of the criminal justice system. If you testify against lowlifes don't expect any protection. Even if you are considered deserving of protection it will fall short of being comprehensive. I have been in courts where witnesses for defence and prosecution shared the same unsupervised waiting room. All sorts of menacing criminal vermin seem to hang about the public areas in courts.
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The police once told someone to keep away from me at my address. That's was nice of them. The offender was outsite the following day. Surprise surprise. On another occasion a policeman repeated my name and address in a loud voice easily within hearing distance of the offender. I can see why some would think at least some police are thick as two short ones.
 
cambsno said:
Wow, if I was self employed i would do anything i could to avoid it then, if you are a small trader for example that could kill your business and earnings. Same to for a small business! Am guessing that holidays would be taken into account but what about other things you need days off for... its not healthy to work 7 months with few breaks, or for things like childcare.
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Yes, not easy for anyone self employed. I know the rate they were paying for S/E people at the time I did the long case was pathetic (something like £250 a week) but it might be changed for the better by now. Holidays are a different matter, like I said if you get a sympathetic judge he might let you postpone the jury service but it’s by no means guaranteed.
 
I must have been lucky as all I have had to contend with is a coroners court in 1970 and it lasted about a couple of hours. Since then they have forgotten all about me. Did not know they could call on you up to 75, better keep a low profile for the next year or so.

Ken
 
A few years back the husband of my french teacher was on a jury for 9 months. It was an armed robbery case and he had an armed police guard whenever he was not in court. The police guard used to sit in his car outside their house all night and at weekends he would go the pub, cinema etc with them. He did not sit with them or chat much to them and they never knew his first name. My teacher was worried all the time but her husband thought it was great having "protection"
 
boogie man said:
You never share a room with the accused. You only ever see them in the court room.

And how do you know the court staff are rude or condescending if you’ve never been on jury service? That’s certainly never been my experience in four stints.
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Plenty of people I know have shared rooms with both the accused and defendants, I can't speak for outside of Scotland though. As for how I know about the lack of courtesy from staff, do you think that Jury service is the only reason to attend court? I've been a 'witness' plenty of times and incidentally also shared a room with the accused, sometimes packed sometimes near empty.
 
boogie man said:
Yes we were there for 7 months solid, bar a few days when there were bank holidays or the barristers were discussing legal arguments that the jury weren’t allowed to hear.

When you’re called for jury service, it’s a jury summons, so it’s a legal requirement that you attend. Your employer can’t do anything about it and they have to continue to pay you as normal. As it happens, the judge in our case took the decision that the court would pay us after three months, due to it being such a long case. It’s hard for self employed people of course, they only get a fixed amount paid per week and also possibly lose business while they’re serving.

During the jury selection process you do get a chance to talk to the judge if you think you won’t be able to serve on a long case. So if you have regular hospital appointments, unbreakable work commitments, child care problems etc etc then, and IF you get a sympathetic judge, you might get excused, but it’s down to the judge and it’s not guaranteed. On our case, they had to start with a panel of over a hundred potential jurors to ensure they’d get 12 by the end of selection.
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No they don't.
 
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