Jury Service - have you?

[Dewe-Road-Gull]

I'm 24 and got called up a couple of years back. Very interesting, bit of a savage case ( death by drink driving ) Concluded the law is an ASS

 

[drew]

Done it twice. Once at Brighton and once at Lewes.

At the end of the second case at Brighton, the judge said he'd sum up, send us away, re-summarise the next morning and then send us out for our verdict. One juror said if he missed another days work he'd be out of a job. The judge asked the jury if we'd prefer to stay that night and as most had done two trials lasting about 15 days we said we'd stay. We were sent out at 4pm for our verdict to find we were split 6:6! We eventually left court 10pm at which point the juror who wanted to stay realised he'd left his dog in his car in a car park (for 8 hours!). God knows what he found when he got back to that car.

Perhaps he ended up in the dock next time he was at court. Fancy taking a dog when you are on jury service?

As for me, did jury service once. Interesting cases and it's interesting how some people form an immediate opinion based purely on the prosecution and can't change that despite the subsequent evidence. One rape case, not guilty and the other GBH for which we found the defendent guilty.

 

[seagull_in_malaysia]

No, only if you're not eligible or ill with a medical certificate.

I'd hate to do it. I'd be terrified that if I convicted someone they or their relatives would hunt me down, and if I didn't convict someone the victim or their relatives would hunt me down

 

[mr sheen]

I was called. Told them I had sciatica and couldn't sit for any length of time. So they excused me.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

No, only if you're not eligible or ill with a medical certificate.

Not strictly true. You can defer it once for a year, but you have to do it 12 months later. As I said, above, they excused me when I spoke to them - they didn't ask for a medical certificate, which surprised me, but I could have got one if needed.

 

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

At the end of my trial (child abuse) most of the jurors went to have a drink together. One of the detectives involved in the case popped in to see us. He said we were right in finding them guilty. There was lots of evidence to prove their guilt but it was not admissible in court. Was such a relief to know we made the right decision.

 

[Worthing exile]

starting my second lot of jury service next week at Hove, attended lewes on my first service about nine years ago. very interesting and enjoyable, three trials, ABH, drug smuggling and murder case which the judge stopped after three days. Two weeks paid leave off work as well.

I remember getting a daily allowance plus expenses for about 8 weeks. When I got back to work they deduction the allowance from my pay as I couldn't be paid twice.
I had the last laugh because I got about £600 in tax back

 

[METALMICKY]

I am due to serve at end Feb and just hope its interesting without being traumatic.

One bummer is that they basically insist you use public transport to attend. The court papers talk about claiming mileage and only being able to use approved car parks. But bizarrely in the next sentence it states that no mileage or parking will be paid if you are coming from an area with public transport links.

 

[pasty]

Been called twice but never served. First time I had a pre-booked and paid for holiday for the same period and was let off, second time I was working on an important time constrained project at work and my then boss wrote to say I could not be released from work.

 

[ngood77]

Murder trial at Old Bailey, bit of an eye opener.

 

[Nigella's Cream Pie]

One period which covered 2 trials.
I was lumbered with being foreman for one, just because I took notes so seemed to the rest of the jury to be taking it seriously.
At the end, I resisted the urge to add 'as sin' to the 'guilty' verdict, the judge then went through a long list of previous convictions which eased our minds.

 

[vegster]

Murder trial at Old Bailey, bit of an eye opener.

Current trial at Old Bailey more of a thigh opener...

 

[hans kraay fan club]

One period which covered 2 trials.
I was lumbered with being foreman for one, just because I took notes so seemed to the rest of the jury to be taking it seriously.
At the end, I resisted the urge to add 'as sin' to the 'guilty' verdict, the judge then went through a long list of previous convictions which eased our minds.

Same with the one I did. The 2 or 3 on the jury that took a bit of convincing (and had even suggested playing the benefit of the doubt card) were very relived when the defendants' MASSIVE list of previous convictions, for similar offences were revealed.

 

[The Modfather]

Twice for me. 2010 & 1989

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Never called up – but got called up for Jury service in the States within a year of moving there. Bit weird as I have a work visa and am not a US citizen so therefore not eligible.

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

Never been called up, but I often thought I'd like to.

 

[ElectricNaz]

I'm 25, got called up when I was still in Southampton, at the court on (St Edwards Street? Brighton) when I was about 21/22. Was put onto 3 cases

1st case - got thrown out after a couple of hours, can't remember why
2nd case - Got thrown out on the first day because the person who claimed to be attacked mentioned that the attacker (her ex bf) had previous convictions for knife crime, and apparently she wasn't supposed to mention that in this trial as it swayed our opinion of the guy
3rd case - domestic abuse where the police got called to the scene and the police were 'attacked' by the guy. Was about 3 days long, me and 2 others thought not guilty but the other 9 said guilty.

All in all I think I spent probably half my two weeks in the building and the rest of the time at home.

 

[timco]

I have done Jury service once but have done two trials, you are on service for 2 weeks.

A colleague has recently been selected again recently he did not get on a trial in his first session.

 

[Nibble]

Did it once. Got 2 weeks off work, paid tax free. Started the Monday after my birthday weekend, did one afternoon and one morning on a very easy case, spent 2 paid weeks off doing whatever I wanted if they hadn't called you by 9am. Rather good.

 

[matski_98]

Deferring it is not the same as turning it down. My ex colleague once tried to get out of it, because she told them she was married to a policeman, but that wasn't sufficient for her to be ineligible.

I'm self employed and turned it down a few years ago because I said that the daily money you could claim for loss of earnings was going to leave me significantly out of pocket. The person I spoke to said that was fine and I never heard anymore about it.

Wasn't trying to shirk my responsibilities or anything I just couldn't afford to take the hit at the time.