Has anyone done Jury service and how did you find it?

I have just been called for Jury Service: had to postpone it as it was incredibly short notice but am due now to do it in June. I will be 74 so nearly got away with it!

I have never been called but my OH has twice - he was the foreman the first time! My daughter has also been called twice. OHs second stint sounded very harrowing but obviously he couldn’t go into detail.

I did it about 30 years ago but having returned from lunch on the first day we were told that the defendant had changed his plea to guilty!

I was called this year and was full of dread. I spoke to my doctor and he agreed that the illness I suffer from would prevent me from sitting in a court room for any length of time. He wrote me a letter and charged me £10. Well worth it.

Never been called thank goodness and will be beyond the age range by Christmas so hopefully will escape forever.
Hope I haven't jinxed myself ?

I have been called twice - 5 times is a lot OP! The first time I was at Isleworth Crown court and sat on 3 cases, 2 were drug trails. I felt sorry for the young Jamaican women who was used as a mule. She had a disabled child and was probably desperate for money. She had swallowed loads of packages containing drugs Which showed up on the X-ray they gave her, so she had no choice to admit to the crime. However, she said she didn’t know about the drugs in her suitcase. I think she got 6 years in prison.

A few years ago I was called again. We had moved to a different part of the country. This was just the one case and it was historical child abuse! Sounds awful doesn’t it, though the said abuser was no more than a child himself. It was very interesting. In the end we found the person not guilty. I have never seen anyone so relieved in my whole life!

I wouldn’t mind doing it again.

I have been called once and found the process of choosing jury members interesting. I wasn't picked and had to phone each evening for three days. I was glad I wasn't chosen as the first case involved a young man who had caused death by driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The photographs would have been harrowing. I've never been picked since

I have done it twice - the first time the trial lasted over 6 months - it was great fun, we ended up in a hotel for 3 nights whilst deliberating

I served on the jury at the Old Bailey on a three week case back in the early 90s. The case involved a dispute between members of a large family of travellers. I could never quite understand why the case came to court as there were no eye witnesses, no forensics and the police declined to turn up and give evidence. Needless to say we found all 8 defendants not guilty of multiple charges, even though we thought there was some truth in the matter, and it was all a great waste of public money.
I was a teacher at the time and I felt that the administrators needed to develop a greater understanding of the world of work. One day we adjourned at 1.00pm and we were told we could go to work for the afternoon. Ie the court wouldn’t pay us. It took me a long time to convince the powers that be that by the time I got back to school the afternoon would be over and that the school wouldn’t pay me because they had had to pay a supply teacher.
Bearing in mind the comments of some other contributors, you meet a wide variety of people on a jury and, like being in hospital, you have to regard it as a sociological experience.

I have done it twice now and I really enjoyed it , I loved watching the barristers work and question the accused, a lot of acting and adjusting of the wigs , am sure they must get itchy heads ! But very interesting and a nice change ,
Neither times were the cases upsetting thankfully , one was drugs and one was theft,
The only bit that grated was when the jury went in to the room to decide if the defendant was guilt or not , There was always one voice who dominated and would shout everyone else down. , but I wouldn’t have missed it and would do it again ,

I did it about 30 years ago and again in 2018, quite an interesting case, all ok except one youngish juror, who, as soon as we left the Courtroom was on his mobile phone, even in the jury waiting room, when we had to go and decide Guilty or not, this Juror said that the defendant was innocent and then admitted that he wasn’t really paying attention during the week long trial and we had to go through the whole case with him to get him to be able decide.
IMO if people don’t want to do it, there are plenty of people who do and will pay attention when they are there and will make a decision based on what they have seen and heard.
Why force people to do it if they have absolutely no interest and just want to get out of there?
In the end the defendant was found guilty and we found that he had a string of other cases against him and after our case he was due for sentencing for all of them. So I enjoyed it, but I don’t really want to do it again.

Yes, I got called about 4 years ago . I had to go for 3 days, phoning a number each evening to hear if I was needed again . On only one of those days was I actually in the jury , both minor , almost comical cases , that I found to be a complete waste of the tax payers money .
I had to take time off work , which caused problems then bus into the next town never knowing when I'd be home .
On the day I was actually in the jury we had to leave via a secret back door to avoid the guilty party's family waiting outside .
The police presence outside the court was frightening so I 'm hoping never to be called again !

I have done it and was called to do it again earlier this year,I am 72 and was excused because my hearing is not good,I have hearing aids now though.

I hated it,it was a long journey for me and involved a lot of sitting around.

I hope I don’t get called again,I also think 76 is to old,

I did jury service a few years ago. I hated the fact that the jury were eventually swayed by one voice who dominated the ‘discussion’ and basically held the view that as the event had not been impartially observed it could never be proven ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’. Eleven jurors completely disregarded the physical evidence (including DNA). Can you guess whose was the dissenting voice? The judge eventually agreed to accept a majority verdict. I fervently hope the other jurors looked the defendant up online after the trial, as I did, and hope that what they found pricked their consciences.

I felt devastated for all the witnesses for the prosecution who must have believed that their combined evidence would lead to a successful prosecution. The victim was distraught.

Kate1949

I did it two years ago. I hated every minute of it. I hope I don't get called again. My husband has never been called and would love to do it.

Same here Kate I was horrified at being called. Hopefully I won’t be called again.

I did it a few years ago, found it very interesting. Our longer case was one of historic sexual abuse so I was dismayed at first, wondering how on earth we could tell, when it was one person’s word against the other,
And allegedly happened years ago.
But it did become clearer to most of us - 10 to 12 - the other 2 had made up their minds from the word go.
I was impressed by our judge telling us that if we had the slightest doubt of guilt, we must return a not guilty verdict. Although that means that the guilty will sometimes go free, at least it lessens the likelihood of a wrongful conviction.

I was called about 20 years ago. I was due to start a new job on the first day of duty .I was let off and can’t say I was sorry. Never been called again.

My Dad did it and enjoyed the experience.

My Sister in Law need up on a jury for a murder case and absolutely hated it.

So I guess it depends on the cases you get.

My eldest daughter has been called to start in a couple of weeks and thinks it might be interesting but hopes she doesn’t get anything grisly.

I did it around 1982 at the Old Bailey!

I found it all very interesting.

I did it a few years ago, I was bored most of the time sitting in the large room waiting to be called, one 2 day trial and sent home early most days.

I was living in a small town in the west of Scotland when I was called up for Jury Service. Initially about 40 people were called - we were then told the name of the accused and advised to leave the court if he was known to any of the would-be jurors. At this point the majority of people got up and left! The accused was,as they say, a well kent face”. I had not lived in the town long enough to know him - so ended up on the jury.
I have to say, I hated it and the highlight of the three days that the trial ran was being taken to a local hotel for lunch.

I did Jury Duty in 2019. It was interesting to find out how everything works and I was glad to see how seriously all of the jurors took the responsibility.

I had been worried that I would see or hear something I wouldn't be able to forget, but luckily that didn't happen. The case did involve a young man suffering life changing injuries and that was hard to see. At the end we were all told we wouldn't be called again for at least 5 years.

When the trial ended I decided to treat myself to a nice coffee and a cake at a nearby café. I came face to face there with the prosecution lawyer. We just smiled at each other and carried on!

I've done jury duty and enjoyed the experience. I took my knitting for the times we waited to be actually called for a case, we heard 3 cases during the fortnight.

The most frustrating thing was how thick (sorry) some of my fellow jurors were, one couldn't tell the difference between facts or evidence and 'gut feelings'. It actually made me fear for the safety of the system.

I was in the same situation Whitewavemark2 so I never did get to be a juror. I suppose it could still happen.

I used to take groups of college students into court as part of their course, and I always felt I would not want to be on the jury.

I did it in the 70s when I was young and enjoyed it. It was a drug smuggling case at the Old Bailey involving a lot of people, hence it lasted nearly three months. It was also lucrative back then as they paid fares and lunches, which I would have paid myself when at work. People I know who served later got much less.
The length of the case meant I got a paper exempting me for life, though I can go again if I choose. I didn't know the age had gone up to 76. I think that's too old to travel and spend a whole day concentrating on important facts.

No because I was a government worker and was always taken off.

I always fancied it, but on the other hand some cases must be extraordinarily distressing.