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I also accept that it is a duty we should all be prepapred to undertake as part of our responsibility to society, as a way of preserving the way of life and civil liberties our predecessors fought dearly and costly wars to retain. I suspect it would also be quite enlightening/depressing in equal parts.
I just don't see why jurors, and hence their families, and posisibly their employees, and [i]their[/i] families, should suffer considerable financial hardship, when you consider the HOOOOOGE amounts of money swilling around being spent on on every other aspect of the criminal justice system/legal aid etc.
I am not suggesting we should be paying massive wages to Jurors, i just don't think it helps the system if the motivated and intelligent amongst society have to come up with stupid excuses to get out of their reponsibility to avoid potential financial ruin. Being slightly worse off we might have to accept. Being made homeless we cannot!
And if the money has to be found to do that, how about a few less Sky TV sets, internet access, single rooms for the end product of the criminal justice system!
i just don't think it helps the system if the motivated and intelligent amongst society have to come up with stupid excuses to get out of their reponsibility
It's less a point of money for many, though naturally the self-employed do bear the riskon this (and so need to ensure their business interruption insurance covers this), but more that many of the more insightful and intelligent jurors effectively excuse themselves from one of the most important roles in society.
Sometimes it seems like a badge of honour to escape the duty, rather than a privilege to have been asked.
I'm a lawyer, so was automatically exempt until a few years ago. I'd be delighted to be called. Not because I think being a lawyer gives me some special insight into criminal cases (my background is M&A and technology - besides jurors are there for facts, not points of law), but because I'd like to contribute to the fairnress and propriety of our justice system.
A guy at my work was called up, his case was a nominal 6 weeks, then extended to 8. Came back to work and found himself at the front of the list for redundancy - lost his job. I can't help but think things may have been different if he had been 'seen at work' for the previous 2 months...