Jury Service (Do NOT turn this into a 'how to get out of jury service' thread)

Never done jury service, yet.

Dad not been called up. Though just 7 months before he’s 75.

Mum did jury service twice in the mid 70s when she lived in London. Can’t remember which court(s) she did. One day, a fellow jury member saw a dress in a market store on her way to the court 2/3 mile from the court. She thought she could walk to/from market in 45 mins (lunch break). She turned up 5 mins late and the judge reprimanded her and think she had a small fine.

I do feel sorry for those who are called up to do long cases like this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39869370 as i don’t think the jury can go on holiday etc. Must be pretty boring and too much information to take in
 
A week was long enough for me, yep its 95% boredom and hanging around, but fascinating too, glad I did it, looking fwd to it again.
 
A colleague was called up for jury service. Called into the court room and to find one of the defendants, an ex of one of her sisters. She never knew his real name as always referred by his nickname. Nickname wasn't based on his name, like many are. She asked the officer what should they do. As the defendant split up with colleague's sister less than a year previously, the judge adjourned the case and one of the spare people not selected initially to take her place.

The court said to her as she left, she would be called up again soon. This was 6 years ago. Still no call up letter.
 
One 48 said:
UK law, obviously and with such a large demograph of folk here, some must have.

Looks like I'm getting called up again oops.

My first instance of JD I tried my very best to worm out of it, asked for DR's note and he point blank said NO. I'm a very shy and reserved person in real life and I respect my Doctors decision and reluctantly went for it.
It was a week long case and I was lucky enough to sit beside and for the duration one of the most Beautiful Woman Ive ever seen, we got a chatting and clicked and I'm happy to report we are partners now ... how lucky was a chance meeting like that?

New Jury duty coming up, like first time have a history of bad ass biker stuff, nothing serious, just wee embarrassing speeding fines and leatherings to opposing bike gang members.
Its all in the past now of course and I quite look fwd to doing Jury Duty again, it gave me a big dose of responsability.

For anyone getting the call up, give it a go, worse things happen at sea.
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So you went for Jury Duty and got a hopefully life sentence? ;)

Congrats!:)
 
dave28 said:
Im sure they pick on people who live reasonably close to a court.
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I drove 45 miles each way when I did mine.

dave28 said:
I live far away from one and have never been called up in the 22 years i have been eligible.
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Most people don't get called. It's nothing to do with distance. The pool of potential jurors is huge and they don't need many. The chances are that most people won't ever get called to do jury service.
 
Been called up 3 times within two years and each time I can't do it due to caring duties that they are told will not change. With all the people apparently who want to do it the whole time the it's random thing seems quite suspect.
 
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cheesefest said:
Interesting to read that some people have served multiple times and some none.

Why do they call the same people multiple times?
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Luck or bad luck of the draw I suspect?

One of the things I remember my last time and from video evidence was the OS booting up a few times and crashing, it was antiquated, Win 98 I think?

Was almost screaming, let me bring my own PC here, it would be much faster.
 
Dave85 said:
Been called up 3 times within two years and each time I can't do it due to caring duties that they are told will not change. With all the people apparently who want to do it the whole time the it's random thing seems quite suspect.
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I thought if you cannot do jury service due to caring duties, they should knock you off the list.

Also do you think very specialised doctors - where there's only a handful in the country are exempt too?
 
I got called up last year. On the first day waited until 1 to be sent home. Day 2 we waited from 10-3 to be sent home. On day 3 waited until 2 to then not be chosen for the trail. Was then released from jury service. 10/10 would wait again for 3 days. :p
 
I wouldnt mind doing jury service and actually had the chance to.

I got picked in my early 20s, I got out of it somehow when my boss told me how, but I cannot remember what I did, I wonder if I ended taking myself off the list completely.
 
Just finished 2 (thankfully short) weeks of jury service. It felt like 6 months it was utterly boring - I got selected on trials both weeks so fortunately had only one day of sitting around but I have zero interest in it or the system so didn't enjoy or find any of it interesting. Some people were very excited or nervous about the cases or going into court but I just couldn't relate. I made sure to listen to the evidence and deliberate correctly so that it was a fair trial because I fully understand why it has to happen but goodness me it was excruciating and a massive inconvenience. Hoping to never be called again!
 
Jury service, yes I did it a few years ago now in the lead up to Christmas. It was eye opening for me I fully understood what went on sometime later. To the extent that I think jurors should get a little bit of training.
In the case I was on, I came to the conclusion the prosecution were not much good and the defence did a great job of creating a reality that I later discovered wasn't reality at all.
The other jurors were pretty thick but thought they weren't and their main priority was to get out of there for Christmas.
Like many things these days the process seems incapable of moving with the times.
 
Slam62 said:
Jury service, yes I did it a few years ago now in the lead up to Christmas. It was eye opening for me I fully understood what went on sometime later. To the extent that I think jurors should get a little bit of training.
In the case I was on, I came to the conclusion the prosecution were not much good and the defence did a great job of creating a reality that I later discovered wasn't reality at all.
The other jurors were pretty thick but thought they weren't and their main priority was to get out of there for Christmas.
Like many things these days the process seems incapable of moving with the times.
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That's my expectation. When you take a "sample" of society, I expect a lot of people selected are clock watching the entire time and base their decision on agreeing with the majority so they can all go home asap.

I've never been selected. I know I'd hate the waiting around I've been reliably informed you have to go through. I guess if you get an interesting case it could be ok.
 
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Just checked back to find the news story, the 2 guys we sent down for murder will still be inside. They got a minimum of 22 and 24 years.
 
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I was called up twice in the last 3 years once for the Sheriff Court and once for the High Court - the first time was during Covid and they were actually doing the trials in the cinema, was effectively "on call" all week but never got selected.

Ended up not getting picked for the High Court either, again another week effectively "on call" - but at least thats me for at least a couple of years now.
 
Ahh bugger, just received the letter.

The thing says I got to start on Monday 10th June, and usually last 10 working days, that is fine. But it says that it can continue for more than 10 working days.

On the 30th June I have a big event on I cannot miss, this will be the 15th working day, is there anyway you can get out of one day or phone in sick?

Otherwise do you think its best to fill the form in providing a later date and not risk it?
 
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