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Jury duty - experiences?
Ovalteenie
Posts: 24,169 Forum Member
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Got a letter from the local county court saying that I have been randomly selected (hurrah!:rolleyes:) for potential jury service.
Anyone ever had a juror summons? Exciting or boring experience? Does the accused & their family get to see who you are... What are the chances of reprisals?
I'd rather win the kind of lottery that involves 6 lucky numbers
Anyone ever had a juror summons? Exciting or boring experience? Does the accused & their family get to see who you are... What are the chances of reprisals?
I'd rather win the kind of lottery that involves 6 lucky numbers
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First time around I was dreading it and really wanted to get out of it but actually I quite enjoyed it. A lot of it was sitting around the canteen being bored waiting to be called and its also nerve wracking when you do get called and the lawyers and defense look at you and have the opportunity to reject you just on how you look!
The trials themselves sometimes was lost on me with some of the technicalities that dragged on but generally it was an interesting experience.
I think it could be fun... Oooh I have The Power!
Also do you get free lunch & refreshments?
Pretty much the same, I did mine when I was 19, spent 2 weeks sitting around in a nice comfy room, being fed an endless stream of BLT's. Had five or six cases in that time but all the defendants apart from one changed their plea to guilty at the last minute.
Helped enormously that some of my fellow jurors were very very hot
Not only that, after about the 3rd week of dealing with their jeers, a sharp word with security soon put paid to any intimidation they were putting my way.
I was appointed head juror but just as we were about to go in to give the verdict, my nerve failed me, and I bottled it. Somthing I really now regret. That said, I don't know if I'd put myself up to be head Juror again, as it can be quite daunting, but who knows.
As Girth said, take a book, and maybe a flask of tea/coffee for when you're in break time. If it works the same as mine did, you'll have a food and drink allowance each day, roughly around £6.00. But if you end up with a lot of breaks, you'll soon run out of that!
Don't be nervous, you won't be the only one there who's never done it before, and you'll find the time flies by. Good luck!
£6 daily food & drinks allowance? That's not much
Same here, it was a good excuse to catch up on some reading.
You're welcome.
No, it's not, and you really will use it up quite quickly. I used to take a snack with me for breakfast, as we had to be in the Jurors lounge area from 9am. Sometimes we'd not be called into court till gone 10, so there was time to have a light bite, to settle the nerves. And that way you won't end up spending all the allowance before lunch time.
When have you been called up? I had a 3 month notice period of the time I was due in. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Though I'd dread having a harrowing case.
Sounds like my dad's experience. When he finally got a case it was a boring and stupid one.
The Prosecution are not normally allowed to tell you about previous convictions untill they are convicted.
BUT. If the defence do not claim that the defendant has a clean record and and an unblemished character, you can bet your life that he has a load of form:p
All in all it was OK. The first trial wasn't that major, turned out to be the tip of the iceberg of some of the things the defendant was being tried for... apparently much worse offences were to follow :eek:. The second one wasn't dull but nothing too major either.
I guess it really depends on the luck of the draw, really. You could be sat doing nothing the whole time or you could spend the whole 2 weeks on a jury. As others have said, definitely bring some form of entertainment.
One of the weird aspects with mine was that, elsewhere in the pool of jurors were 3 other people who went to my school (2 in the same year as me!). Makes me wonder just how 'random' their selection process is.
I feel sorry for the posters commenting about seeing the defendant(s) out and about while the trial was going on, that must've been really intimidating.
eta found it http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/docs/infoabout/juryservice/juror_allowances_e.pdf
really not worth it until you're in for over 11 days (and do more than 4 hours)
bloody hell, I hope I'm never called!
On the first day we all sat around until around lunchtime and then
they came and told us that the cases had been dropped / postponed
for a number of reasons and we could go away and not come back.
I was a bit dissapointed as I was quite looking forward to it.
We discovered afterwards that if he had been convicted it would have been the end of his career.
When i did it 3/4 years ago they gave you a 'smart card' with the daily allowance on it........you used it in the canteen
It was enough for a proper two course meal and a few cups of coffee during the day
Did you sign for the letter? If not just rip it up and throw it away, they can't prove you had the letter. that is what I would do.