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Mrs EGf deferred hers about 2 months ago as her mum was on end of life care (she passed away 2 days after jury service was due to start) She could get called up again in 12 months time.
Me? ‘As an ex prison officer of 16 years, I can tell by just looking your honour’. 🤭
Im completely against compulsory jury service, especially as suggested by convert.
Mainly due to the fact I’ve seen that impact on a friend who was a juror on a 6 week case related to child sex-trafficking. What he heard/saw on that case has haunted him since.
I sincerely believe Jury service should be opt-out. Or at the least you can have the option to not do certain types of case.
To be able to pick and choose might not only delay cases, but put an end to trial by jury by your peers and be left in the hands of a single individual.
Thats not a good direction for the law to be taking.
To be able to pick and choose might not only delay cases, but put an end to trial by jury by your peers and be left in the hands of a single individual.
Thats not a good direction for the law to be taking.
I get that, but what if the case affects the member of the jury to a large extent?
Some people could cope with say a child abuse/murder case more than others. What if the case left a member or members of a jury ‘mentally scarred’ ( for want of a more sensitive phrase) surely that’s not a good thing?
Yeah, I tend to agree, it keeps things more fair, it's a civic duty unless you have a reasonable excuse, family issues, health issues etc.
I suppose it's easy enough to get out of it you want to, by cooking up some reason, or even just saying your a bit mentally fragile and will just call guily/innocent regardless of the trial - that would probably get you kicked off the list.
But I don't think you should just be able to opt out by default.
What if the case left a member or members of a jury ‘mentally scarred’ ( for want of a more sensitive phrase) surely that’s not a good thing?
No it is not a good thing, and I can sympathize with those who have to go through such cases. Obviously it will be highly traumatic.
But then again, everyone connected to the case from the lawyers to the judge to social work to the victims themselves will have to deal with it. Why then make members of the jury exempt.
I expect those who have sat on such cases and been affected by it can seek counselling.
be nice to have an AI jury that could have it's memory wiped after every case, though racial bias in machine learning doesn't have a good rep.