Jury Service
Poppy99_Poppy
Posts: 2,255 Forum Member
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Quick question. What time do you have to arrive in the morning? Done it a few times before, years ago, but can't remember if you had to get there 9 ish or later.
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Poppy99_Poppy
Posts: 2,255
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No, I know date and court but I have not sent off the form yet. I think they give you more details when you send that back.
So send it back?
Most courts working days starts somewhere between 8Am and 9AM, however the time that potential jurors must attend can depend on the business the court has on the day.
Instructions will be sent out prior to the service beginning, in some courts you may be asked to telephone the night before to check if you are needed and if so when.
Got a feeling it was 8.30 the first day I did jury service, presumably to give time to book everyone in, explain the rules on claiming for travel etc.
After that it was never earlier than 10.
You sit for an hour or so, you listen to some legal mubble and you are selected or not.
If the judge thinks its a short case you may be asked to attend again on Tuesday.
If the judge thinks it will be longer you will be dismissed. Once you are dismissed, you can go home/ back to work etc.
Electoral roll.
During your life-time you can be called at random for Jury Duty either twice or three times. Whether you are dismissed or sit on the Jury each counts, so you can be called and dismissed, or sit on the Jury or a combination of each.
I think you can be called 3 times for Service ( selected to sit on Jury or not) after that you should not be called again.
I've been called for Jury Service twice, but never sat on the jury.
You attend the court with 30 or so other people that have also been called, you sit and listen to some legal mumble from the prosecution, defense and judge and then names are basically pulled out of a hat.
Each name that is pulled is asked by the Judge if they have any knowledge of the case being made, or if you have any association with anyone that may be associated with either the prosecution or the defense. If you do, you are asked to define that, then the Judge will either dismiss you, or ask you to comeback the next day for a new case.
Depending upon the case load at that court on that day, you may be asked to be present the next day for selection again, or you may be Discharged of Duty, which is basically, thanks for service you are free to go.
Not going to work sounds good, but it wasn't in my case.
I got called years ago, when the maximum loss of earnings you could claim per day was around £8 to £10.
I was self employed, earning between £140 to £175 per day, so I took a letter from my accountant, plus correspondence from H.M.R.C. to prove my earnings, and that I'd declared the sums, and paid tax on them.
No dice, just take it on the chin was the reply.
Fortunately I could do my job at any time, so as soon as I left court I'd go out and make some money.
It made for a long day, and the only case that I sat on I was constantly dozing, but the guy was a slam dunk for being guilty, so I didn't have to concentrate much.
When I did it, I was one of a group called into court and given a list of questions to answer about things like whether we had any holidays booked, whether we were able to understand certain kinds of document etc. It turned out that the case was expected to last several weeks and once we had agreed to be available we couldn't then have any grounds for absence. I had no problem with that.
It was a fascinating experience, but I could see others who arrived the same day as me spent a lot of time over several days sitting around waiting to be allocated to a case. That must have been a very disappointing and boring way to spend jury service.
Is the jury member allowance taxable? It's a proper kick in the wallet if you have to take a big drop in wages and then Her Maj nabs a chunk back?
You get basic travel and basic allowances. So you can claim a basic set level fuel fee which may or may not cover your genuine cost. What you cannot do is say your Daily rate is £500, you will get the £60 or £70 cost for that day. If you have to be held overnight for any reason it as their cost, and is middle of the road accommodation. Think Premier Inn rather than Travel Lodge.
All tax reclaimable.
pretty much, except some people never get chosen like me
You get chosen to be called for service at random. You can be called 3 times max.
I have a friend who's father is currently sitting, has never been called before, but is now sitting, And its quite a nasty case.
After this case is over, he will be discharged from ever having to sit again.
You can refuse, i don't know what happens
on the first day i got to leicester crown court at 830 , there are 5 courts , so generally they need to have a pool of 80 jurors on site at all times (16 per court )
you go to a huge waiting room/cafe , where you will watch a short video then you just sit and wait ,,,,, and wait ,,,,, and wait , obviously you can buy something to eat , put a quid in a swimming baths type locker for your things ,,,,, there are board games , magazines , jigsaw's and novels provided , or you can tinker with your phone all day , (my advice would be to take in a tablet , ds , psvita etc.)
on my first day i had to wait until 3.30 until i was called with 15 others. your asked to switch your phone off and follow an usher to a court , the defendant will be in the dock and all names relating to the case will be read out (defendant witnesses etc ) and the 16 of you are asked if you recognise any of the names so that there is no conflict of interest , then your 16 names are read to the defendant to see if he has any knowledge of you etc ,,,,,,, if everything ok then 12 will be picked randomly from the 16 to serve ,,,,,,,,, the other 4 go back to the waiting pool.
i was one of the 4 ,,,,,,,,,,, then the next day i got picked for my case.
you hear all the evidence from witnesses statements , plus the prosecution and defence present their cases , theres lots of cross referencing and adjurnments for lunch etc etc
when everything is done , the 12 of you are given a room in which to deliberate (we took about 3hours) then you select which one of you is to be the foreman/speaker ,,,,,,,, then you go back to the court and deliver your verdict ,,,,,,,, ours was unanimous , but in the event of a disagreement the judge may decide on a majority verdict .
at leicester you are given £5.70 per day food allowance , and reimbursement for bus fayres or petrol (but no parking reimbursement ).
without medical grounds (and written proof from your doctor ) you cant get out of jury service , its your civic duty.
you can defer it (put it off , in the event you may have booked a holiday etc) for up to 12 months , but you will have to do it sooner or later.
leicester pay 38 quid a day for those of you that are working (it goes up if the trial your on lasts more than 3 weeks) ,,,,,,,,,, your employer can do nothing about it too , they cant sack you or give you any form of disciplinary (they would be shut down lol)
if your on jsa , you dont get any money from the court (other than the travel/food allowance mentioned ) ,,,,,,, you just receive your jsa payment as usual ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but you dont have to look for work either (so no universal bobmatch) and you cant be sanctioned either .
best of luck.
You can be called no more than 3 times in 5 years but you can be called more than 3 times. A friend of mine has done 4 lots. She tried to get out of the last lot on the 3 times thing but was told that didn't apply.