Jury Service Summons anyone ?

I did it once about 10 years ago. It was horrible. I hated every minute of that two weeks.

One of my cases concerned historic sexual abuse, and initially I wondered how on earth I was supposed to be able to tell, when it was one person’s word against the other’s. It was quite worrying.

However, as the case went on, it became pretty clear, to ten of us out of the 12 - there was a majority verdict.
Two of the jurors, however, had clearly made their minds up from the word go.

The judge had made it clear that if we had any doubt as to guilt, we must return a not guilty verdict. Which I dare say means that quite a few guilty ones will go free, but to me that has to be better than the alternative.

Are you sure they won't just change the date when you tell them you are on holiday for the specified dates?
I was called to the Crown Court some years ago, I had just broken my shoulder and arm so after a lot of tarradiddle managed to get the dates changed.

I say on jury service three years ago in the Crown Court. I found it fascinating!!

You can’t usually not attend jury service without a medical reason. What you can do if you are on holiday is make application to have jury service deferred and you will be called at a later date. I think you can only do this once. I did it because dh was just home from a serious heart operation and got called 6 months later.

It was the most boring experience waiting to see if you were called. On day 3 seven of us were told we weren’t needed and could go home. Cos of dh’s health I was one of the lucky ones

I've been called three times and served twice. The two I served on were extremely boring. I wasn't looking forward to the third as it was a GBH case but I got excused because I knew the defendant

OH has been called twice - once in Swindon and the other time in Oxford. He was elected foreman both times. I’ve never been called.

I always dreaded being called and it finally came at the beginning of 2019. Luckily Covid came along and saved me! I haven't heard anything since 🤞

Twice. But thankfully didn’t have to do either.
1st time was to Old Bailey in London. I was about 5 months pregnant and still throwing up a lot so was excused.
2nd time 16 years later was local but by then had my son who is Autistic so couldn’t leave him.
My daughter spent about 3 or 4 weeks doing it and came away disillusioned with the system.

I was called to the high court in Edinburgh about 40years ago. It was half term but I cancelled my holiday so DH took the DC away without me.

It was my civic duty. I wanted to do it.
I was called (50 names in a hat, 15 chosen)
It was attempted murder and fairly grizzly. I was swayed by both barristers to and fro in the summing up. Our jury discussions were most interesting. One of the jurors was very observant.

He got not proven, the Scottish verdict. One of the court officials afterwards said that these people and their relatives were regularly in court.

What has stayed with me was the voice of the doctor who saved the victim's life despite being verbally abused by the drunken victim.

Another memory was seeing the jury from the neighbouring trial, which was a tragic murder, weeping over their meal. We could see eachother but not speak.

I found it hard going home to an empty house and being unable to talk about the trial.
Nowadays, with social media, jurors can be identified and have added fears of perhaps being followed home!

I did it years ago, and I really enjoyed the experience. There was a lot of waiting around at the beginning but once we were in the court it was fascinating I thought. I enjoyed the process of reaching the decision too, actually it was a bit like the political threads on Gransnet - if you’re a debater you willl enjoy it I’m sure.

It will be deferred if you’re due to be on holiday, as 25Avalon said, one of our number when I did it had been when she was originally called, which was for a spell about 2 months before.

Grammaretto,

I completely agree re see it as my civic duty & am truly sorry I have had to ask to be excused .
We are however going on a road trip holiday to France with our two KCC for 3 weeks . This would be right across our holiday dates ,which we have already had to move dates shorten weeks from 4-3 & pay extra for the ferry . I will just have to wait & see what response I get .

It must be about 30 years since I was on a jury. It was a sexual abuse case with a girl accusing her mother's ex husband (not the girl's father) It seemed very dodgy all round, there didn't seem to have been any suggestion of abuse until the man had got engaged to another woman. The mother seemed very embittered and you couldn't help suspecting that she just wanted to ruin his new relationship. The girl seemed very hazy about what had happened and, in one case, wasn't even sure if anything had happened. The chairman of the jury was a devout Methodist and insisted on praying before we started deliberating. He was sure that God would tell him which way to vote, while another man wasn't sure if he had committed the assaults he was accused of but was certain he must have committed some crime, so he was going to say guilty. In the end we couldn't reach a verdict and it went for retrial. It seemed an appalling waste of money unless they could come up with some more compelling evidence.

I did jury service at the Old Bailey when I was in my early 20s. It was drug smuggling with several defendants, so lasted around three months. Lots of jurors got excused as they could get two weeks off work but not time off for a long trial.
It was an interesting experience. The judge was out of touch with normal life. Due to the long case, we were given exemption for life from serving again.

I would have loved to have been called in my younger day.
My dad did jury service years ago, My daughter, probably in her early 20's. It was a sexual abuse case. It really affected her badly. So upset when she came home.

I did it a good few years ago and loved the experience. I often used to go and sit in Magistrates court during my studying. Later on I would also visit both Crown and Coroner’s courts as part of my HE studies.

I've had to do it twice and, like Kate1949 above, I hated every moment.
The cut-off age is now 75 (since 2016) and, with 18 months to go, I'm hoping to escape without getting caught in the net again.
My late mother, on the other hand, always wanted to do it but never got summoned. She even went into the Crown Court offices once to ask if there was anything she could do to make sure she got called because she thought it unfair that some people missed out on the experience!

If it arrived in an ordinary second class envelope and was not signed for then there is no proof it was ever delivered. So if if clashed with a holiday you could probably ignore. Its up to them to prove that you received the summons.

Would have love to have been called

I thought it quite bizarre that after one session in court, I hopped on the bus to go back to the park and ride to go home for the day as the trial had finished for the day.

Also on the downstairs of the bus was another juror, the judge (obviously in his civvies) the defendant and his mother! No one made eye contact….

I found it very interesting but wish I had asked our policeman neighbour to teach me about drugs. Despite being around all the clubs in Liverpool in the 60s, I knew absolutely nothing.

The judge was brilliant.

If I got called I d suddenly develop Covid luckily I m too old now whoopee my son was called up in NZ and said it was totally boring no one else in my extended family have ever been called

The random nature of call-up for jury service has always fascinated me.

I had two calls, and one trial, within 2 years when I was in my late 50s, but no other member of my family has ever been called for jury duty and at one point I had a staff member who had been called up - and done jury duty, twice by the time she was 25.

Scribbles

I've had to do it twice and, like Kate1949 above, I hated every moment.
The cut-off age is now 75 (since 2016) and, with 18 months to go, I'm hoping to escape without getting caught in the net again.
My late mother, on the other hand, always wanted to do it but never got summoned. She even went into the Crown Court offices once to ask if there was anything she could do to make sure she got called because she thought it unfair that some people missed out on the experience!

I love that your MIL did that , I was begging ing to think it was too late for me as well 😢
Though typically it’s while I am on a very early( for us , as we normally take our GC in Children ) summer holiday 😎

I did a 3 month stint on probably the worlds most boring case.
It was to do with banking and money laundering, and involved us looking at huge files "section 2, subsection 4, paragraph 9" type of thing.
The judge was very amusing, though, but the weight of making the right decision was awful.