And what's to say the people they randomly picked wouldn't be biased. If that never gets picked up on, then that makes them absolutely worthless.
Jury Service (Do NOT turn this into a 'how to get out of jury service' thread)
- Thread starter jcr
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I'm not sure about in the UK but I know they disqualify people with certain biases in the US. If you had professional juries they'd be tasked with putting people in prison, without worrying about guilt. We already have this in the UK court system with CAFCAS, which systematically stop fathers from seeing their children.
There are problems with incompetant juries of peers, thinking of American murder trials such as OJ Simpson and George Zimmerman, which are both very probably guilty. But then there is question marks over both trials, such as police seemingly planting evidence in the OJ trial.
"It is better that ten guilty men go free than that one innocent man suffer" is known as Blackstone's Ratio, from William Blackstone.
At the time I was called at first it required traveling a decent distance via bus/train to a nearby city which also meant getting up at something like 5am. That's why I was stressed about being called due to the traveling. Very luckily a court house opened up 10min walk from where I live. Pretty much everyone on day 1 was talking about how happy they are at not needing to do the 1+ hour travel each way every day.
Expense's paid doesn't really cover much. Many people on jury service lose a large amount of wage for the week(s) they are on it. Again I was lucky my job covered my wage but other people on jury service with me lost £1000+ wage. Our case went over 4+ weeks over the Christmas period. I lost some of my holidays as at that point my holidays where fixed weeks of the year and could not be claimed back.
So in short yes it can be new, interesting, exciting. But it can also be boring, stressful, challenging, emotionally draining and cause problems. It all depends on the type of case you get. Tax Evasion chances are the average person is not going to enjoy that. 4 week+ case with tires being slashed daily, well that one might be scary and exciting.
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As I now run my own Business, being forced to loose 2 weeks potentially is very bad indeed. If I had a job organised, I'd loose upwards of 10k into the company account. Can't get those weeks back.
Thankfully I'm still on the payroll with the family business, which would keep me getting paid. But... the potential losses to them too are not fair. We have wages to pay!
Not all employers pay you your full wage while on jury duty. Would you take a potentially significant financial loss to do it? You might be on a very dull case too.
I did it once, was fine with that. I can see why people don't want to as they pay you less than minimum wage.
Second time I got excused. I did it once, that's me done, I've done my "civic duty". It's unfair to constantly pick on people (I don't think it's random, no matter how much the ministry of justice says "it's random, trust me bro"), I would object again if I got called a third time. Should be ticked off the list until they have gone through everyone else, only then should it be able to loop back around.
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Back in the 90s I was told that it was not wholly random, but that was 30 years ago so things may have changed.
I have some questions about it.
1. Why is it two weeks? What if a case lasts 3 months? What happens to the jury after 2 weeks?
2. Is there a maximum case time?
3. Is it true that in some circumstances such as high profile cases, you sometimes need to be put up in a hotel for the entire duration of the case and you can only leave hotel to go straight to court, then back to hotel until completion?
4. Why do people get called to then sit around for 2 weeks then sent home? I don't understand. Do they not call up 12 people if 12 are required plus say a couple on the standby list? It sounds like they call up about 50 people for a 12 person jury. How does it work? Why do they do this?
1. Why is it two weeks? What if a case lasts 3 months? What happens to the jury after 2 weeks?
2. Is there a maximum case time?
3. Is it true that in some circumstances such as high profile cases, you sometimes need to be put up in a hotel for the entire duration of the case and you can only leave hotel to go straight to court, then back to hotel until completion?
4. Why do people get called to then sit around for 2 weeks then sent home? I don't understand. Do they not call up 12 people if 12 are required plus say a couple on the standby list? It sounds like they call up about 50 people for a 12 person jury. How does it work? Why do they do this?
4 - Conflicts of interest and "jury selection" - So if they just called up say 12 + 2 spare - if there are any reasons for you NOT to be able to be impartial - say you know the person, you saw information online about the crime and have pre-determined they are guilty etc - you know a witness etc - Any reason for you to be "pre" judging. They need a large pool to pick from.
Also in bigger trials - both sides can select / remove jurors - This can be based on loads of reasons. Maybe they want more females on the jury, maybe a certain age group "might" be better for them etc - Jury Selection is huge for the basis of your clients outcome.
No way @booyaka are you sure? I may be reading it wrong, but it sounds like you are saying the Prosecution and the defence, can each remove Jurors based on maximising the chance of their success? Does that not defeat the sole purpose of a Jury to be impartial?
1. Two weeks is just the minimum time you are on "Jury Service". If the case goes long, then you just have to stay unless you have a really good reason. Don't know what happens then.
When I did it, they were pretty on the ball with it. Any cases they were expected to be longer were given to people on their first week & any one who had their trial end mid second week was just dismissed. I was dismissed on either Wednesday or Thursday of the second week (can't remember). For cases they were expecting to be really long (there was a trial that was expected to be 6 weeks when I was doing it), they selected more people than usual from the jury room and then they had a chance to say why they couldn't do it.
2. No
4. Here (England to be specific, might be different elsewhere, maybe even court to court), everyone who was called just sits in big jury selection room all day, then they picked 14 I think for a trial, those went to a court, then it was "can anyone not do this case for whatever reason", 12 were picked, others went back to the Jury room. You were in the room waiting because they didn't know what time trials would start, so you were there just to be available. If you were lucky/unlucky depending on how you look at it, you could have just sat in the selection room for the whole two weeks, never seeing a court.
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Tends to only be big trials in America but yes - can happen
Scotland and England tend to be selected by random computer based on your number....after they have removed anyone who can have reason to be removed. Age, recent service, knowing the witness / defendants etc.
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