been called up for a few weeks time. initially thought bahhhh cant really be bothered, but everyones telling me how lucky i am and theyd love to do it. dont see that myself, but….. id guess even worse tho would be turning up each day to be told sorry, youre not needed, off home you go after putting up with the rush hour traffic and paying for a days parking.

so….. any tips on how to be ‘selected’? smart casual clothes? no tats showing? or does it really not matter, its total pot luck and your names pretty much drawn out of a hat?

cheers

The only time I was called up for it, the selection was pot luck.

If there is more than one trial at the courts going on then the odds of you being actually selected will of course rise.

They cover your expenses as far as im aware, and other than that cant help.

Thankfully Im exempt, and tbh I think those saying they’d love to do it arent really aware of how horrific it could be. Murder, rape, the jury gets to examine the intimate pictures be that man, woman or child.

England or Scotland? If Scotland, you get chosen at random from a pool and find out by phone the day before. So you could be trussed up in your gimp suit whilst you wait if that’s your bag.

Done it twice. Totally random regarding selection. And just because you get selected and end up in a court room, you could still be sent back.
Take a book, some snacks.
I got cases on both occasions and loved seeing how it all worked.

Be carefull what you wish for when I did jury service I got selected for a case involving child abuse.
Some of evidence might be disturbing and will stay with you. It’s not the nicest thing I have done.

It has to be done!

my wife git the letter last month but not been cwlled at all , just sitting waiting for the last 2 weeks, pita tbh

I was called up two weeks ago but by the Tuesday evening I was told I wouldn’t be needed and my service had ended. Kind of glad to be honest.

It’s shit and an eyeopener into how awful and wasteful the justice* system is.

*At local court level it’s largely akin to a bad episode of Jeremy Kyle that you can’t turn off.

At the other end of the spectrum you get the trauma cases.

Wouldn’t get too excited it s a civic duty no more I wouldn’t rush back.

quote buttons missing for me so apologies.

england, and yep ive got all the bumph that explains expenses so i wont be out of pocket.

why take a book? would it not be tha case that ill either be selected (so have to concentrate) or ill be sent home?

and yep, crown court so im aware that it may be a grim one, but itd be interesting too. unless it is actually child abuse, not sure i could stomach that. if that was the case can you ask that you arent selected, or do you just have to go with it no matter what?

EDIT:  hmmmm quote buttons back…

my wife got the letter last month but not been cwlled at all , just sitting waiting for the last 2 weeks, pita tbh

surely you dont sit in the building waiting all day??  are you not sent home?

Yeah, i could have done without the 2 week rape case I was selected for.

I’ve been selected twice. First time I got on two cases one pretty harrowing and traumatic. Played on my mind for a good time afterwards.

The second time I didn’t get on any trial.

Take a book it can be a lot of sitting around.

You do indeed sit around much of the day waiting to see if you are called to a trial, hence the book… books.

I was called up many years ago but not selected which was probably for the best as the characters I saw wandering the corridors all looked guilty of something to me and half of them were probably not even on trial.

My father in law has just done his in London and it’s an absolute shambles. Most days he’s had to turn up and wait in a room just in case. They go off and have lunch (£6 for a sandwich though he was lucky and could walk home). Back after lunch for more sitting then told to go home at 2.30. every day he has to wait for a message in the afternoon to know whether he has to go back the next day. Today he was told don’t come back at all (2 days left of his 2 weeks).
So he’s done absolutely nothing (which is why you need a book).
It’s lucky he’s retired or else he’d be livid at the work he’s lost.

Did a stint a 6 years ago at Guildford Crown Court. Travel expenses a misnomer – public transport only, no mileage or parking. There was no viable public transport route, so drove and used park and ride. You need a book because they ask you to get there early and sometimes you can be sat for hours – no WiFi and can’t use phones.
Was interesting to see the rusty wheels of justice grind painfully slow – week long trial was a she said, he said sexual assault with no verdict.

Chap at work has just been involved in an infant rape case. Nothankyouverymuch.

They did offer him some support though. Gave him the number for the Samaritans.

I did 7 weeks on a fraud case at Reading CC 8 years ago.

Take a thermos and sarnies on first day and a book – there were no refreshments on site – you might be sitting around for the whole week YMMV.
You are allocated randomly to cases. Care full what you wish for, some were very disturbing.
Have a holiday booked for soon after your 1-2 weeks if want to avoid a long case – its a valid reason for not being allocated.
I am glad I did it, although work were ****s about it. Talking of which one of my fellow jurors was a house manager at Eton College. Pretty senior role responsible for 180 little Boris’ and Daves. They got massive grief when they told Eton were on a long case. Spoke to the judge about it,who said he would “deal” with it & ended 10 minutes early that day. Following morning they came came in with a big smile saying Eton College had completely changed their attitude. Who knows what the judge said! He was an impressive character. His summing up was way more accurate than the 3 defence barristers.

Overall glad I did it and gave me confidence in the legal system.

At least Scotland seem to have the selection process more streamlined (at least for the Sheriff courts)

Phone the provided number the evening before, which will tell you what you need to do the next day.
If no jury is needed, you’ll be told to phone again the next evening.
If a jury is needed, you’ll be told to expect a phone call the following day. First phone call will tell you if you’ve been entered into the selection lottery, and that if you’re name is drawn, that you’ll receive a second phone call. If you don’t receive the second call, then you’re back on the evening call cycle.
If you do get the second call, you have to be in court the following day, at which point you might end up on a jury.

I done it a couple years ago, and the court staff were pretty good at explaining the process, and the reasons behind things.
If they know that there’s no jury trial starting, they don’t call any potential jurors into court that day, however they don’t do the final selection until they know a case is definitely going to trial, which is on the morning you’ll be called to court. So you can end up sat in the juror selection room, until the court is sure there are going to be no last minute pleas.

Even if you’re selected, you’ll spend quite a bit of time out of the court room, so take something to keep yourself entertained. The case I done lasted 3 days, and we spent quite a bit of that in the Juror Room. You get kicked out while legal points are argued, and 15 minute breaks will often be far longer (turned out the Sheriff deals with other more minor business first thing and while those involved in the main case are out of the court for breaks, and there was also the morning that the court staff lost the defendant for an hour or so…)

Be carefull what you wish for when I did jury service I got selected for a case involving child abuse.
Some of evidence might be disturbing and will stay with you. It’s not the nicest thing I have done.

+1 probably the worst two weeks Ive ever experienced. Awful and disturbing even now just now thinking about it and it was 10 years ago.

I did jury service a while ago. As outlined above take something to read or a puzzle book. The first morning was a brief training/ admin session followed by jury selection. I did one afternoon and a whole day on one case and was then selected on the third morning for another case but just as we were due to be sworn in the defendant pleaded guilty and so was sent home and wasn’t called again
There were quite a few potential jurors who were self-employed who were very upset about their inclusion and as mentioned above the expenses don’t cover everything.
I found it fascinating and disturbing in equal measure. The one case I sat on was for GBH. I would not rush to do it again.

I’ve been a witness twice, and been called again for May, but never a juror.
Definitely take a good book or six! There is a lot of sitting about doing nothing.
On both my cases I was sent home at lunchtime without having to give evidence, first one he changed his plea to guilty at the last minute, second one they ****ed up and put two witnesses for the same case in the same room so had to abandon the case on a technicality. First one Wales, second one Scotland. No doubt the jurors had a similar experience of doing nothing.
.
Someone above said no milage expenses which wasn’t my experience, I claimed milage both times. The Cardiff one worked out well, I drove down from St. Andrews, got paid 45p/mile for it in a car which was costing about 10p (it was a while ago…) I was up enough on it to buy a magnesium Saracen Killi frame with the extra. Shows how long it was.
The Scottish one was last September, and much more local.

Had to check. I was ineligible for 40 years due to two jobs and that continues for 5 years after you stop doing the job concerned. So I am not currently eligible but will be for a few years before I get to 71.

https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/default-source/coming-to-court/jurors/1-guide-to-jury-service-eligibility.pdf

Having spents a fair bit of time working in courts over the years I would prefer not be be called but if I am I would definitely be taking a book. It’s bad enough sitting around courts when you are getting paid to be there.

Mine was an absolute debacle – Guildford crown court about 20 years ago.

As above, lots of inexplicable waiting around “just in case” – getting sent home at 3 if nothing appeared to be happening.

Eventually got put on a case: Where some oik made a not particularly well disguised threat to kill his partner (“you’ll be seeing him soon….” in reference to a recently deceased grandparent). We went through all the preliminary stuff, then when the partner took the stand, she made reference to a previous assault.

Objection your honour…… jury dismissed for having been biased by hearing about previous (uncharged?) assault.

Another few days inexplicable waiting around.

So all in all, a bit of a shambles. Manage your expectations.

hmmmm….. really starting to wish i had an out. id thought itd just be a quick half hour to see if im selected then toddle off home if not.

not even worth turning up looking like a loon/nazi/tory if you still have to wait around anyway.

id better get that kindle loaded.

thanks

when I got the letter to go to Manchester, they were selecting the jury for the Lucy Letby case, which I thankfully swerved by knowing one of the potential witnesses. Still; did a robbery in week one and an assault in week 2, still take a book, its very much “hurry up and wait”

it’s a pretty miserable place, even if you don’t end up on a super horrible case. Judge was very impressive, helped structure thinking in really useful way. Rest of the jury utter morons. I was added to a case, they call out the names of the victim, accused and witnesses in case you happen to know any of them (aside – people seemed to be claiming to know people that they didnt in order to get out of it). In this case GBH, the victim (a woman), the accused (a man) and all the witnesses had the same surname. It got scrubbed for some reason i never found out. Pretty glad.

Couple of years ago got part way through a coroners court & then the coroner got COVID, so it was cancelled, presumably had to start again later – poor family, was a prison suicide by a young man who clearly shouldn’t have been in that part of the “system” despite the crime he’d committed. We got expenses & as above sat around for quite a while, so yes take a book.

When I did it you had to report for 9am as that gives some time for the courts to open and if selected for a jury you would then be informed, but it may not start until after lunch, or you may be waiting for a jury to be selected so have to sit about until that happens. Once you are selected for a jury though you’ll be in that until the case concludes or you’re discharged, and then it’s back to the pool for if another case needs a jury. You could be sat around the whole time or you could get picked up early. If there was nothing scheduled for the rest of the day then they would usually know just after lunch time but sometimes just before, so generally there would be a morning sat around waiting, hence the book/snacks etc.

This might help a bit
https://www.theguardian.com/law/shortcuts/2013/feb/21/10-things-jurors-need-to-know

Reading sone of the nasty cases here, I feel quite lucky:

There were a couple of short robbery/assault cases, where I learned that in a community where little English is spoken, and many people go by several names, proving anything beyond reasonable doubt is pretty much impossible.

The main case for me was a man who, Fathers for Justice style (but not actually), scaled the London Eye dressed as Spiderman, closing it for a period. Hearing how he had exhausted every possible legal avenue to see his daughter, it was obviously an act of desperation. The prosecution tried their best to show that the London Eye being closed for a period had ruined various witnesses’ day trips, only to have the defence extract from them that they went on to do lots of other fun stuff instead.

There was lots of deliberation (I didn’t want to help set a precetent whereby anyone can do this for any reason) but ultimately we found him not guilty. The relief on his face, and his humble “Thank You” to us on his way out will stay with me. Sometines the system works!

I did an eight week terrorism case last year at a Crown Court. There may have been a thread on it here after he was found guilty as it was all over the national press, but I can’t find it. I think everyone has covered the salient day-to-day points above.

I’m now glad I did it. Before it I was hesitant but I didn’t have any reasonable excuse for not doing it, plus I believe trial by jury to be a good thing, and a societal obligation everyone should meet. It was actually nice to do something completely different from the job I’ve done for 25 years. Almost a holiday in a way.

There was a bit of waiting around for us at the start, but a set of people had been pre-warned they could be doing a long trial and asked if they were able to, the jury was then randomly selected from that group. If you couldn’t do the long trial, you did the standard two weeks. Two rounds of random selection in the jury room, and then a final random selection by the clerk in the courtroom itself. Nothing about you influences the selection in any way.

Once the trial got going there were a few days we ended earlier due to witness availability or just through natural points in the case, some days we went in and told to immediately go home (in one instance the defendant was ill), and other planned days off such as other cases needed the court room.

No food and drink supplied on site, but allowed to bring anything in. Phones etc allowed in the jury waiting room and decent WiFi, took my laptop for the first few days, but decided not to work after a while as I couldn’t focus on that and the case. My employer was very understanding, they paid me fully throughout which a lot of people don’t get. I claimed my daily train travel back from the court, and the subsistence allowance covered most of lunches.

One thing I noticed about the jurors was there weren’t many ‘professional’ people. It was mostly the retired, part time workers, students, etc. And frankly, a large number of people who didn’t know what day of the week it was, along with more head tattoos than I’ve seen in my life. I’m guessing this was because those with more ability to get out of it do so. Not sure this is a good thing, as a jury really needs a wide cross section of the public to be fair. There were also a number of jurors on my case who really struggled with understanding some of the evidence. Not sure what the answer is for that, although in my case other jurors took the time to support them and explained things. This needed to be done carefully though, as you can’t influence another jurors’ opinions. It’s hard work paying attention to the evidence, so our court never sat for more than a couple of hours without a break. You make a lot of notes.

At the time, I just got on with it, but since I’ve noticed that the case did affect me. Some of the evidence presented was pretty disturbing, and not some stuff I’ll ever forget, but I guess it could have been worse. Because you can’t talk about it during the case with anyone outside the case, lean on the other jurors. If something is upsetting, talk about it to them. After the case you can talk about anything that was presented publicly in the court, which gives an outlet to offload, although you can never talk about discussions in the jury room or how the jury arrived at their verdicts to anyone.

Overall, it’s an experience I’m glad I’ve had, but I’ll be happy if it don’t get called again for a fair while. I know I won’t get called for at least two years or can decline if I am.

Oh, and a highlight of the case was a senior police officer and a very sharp QC with incredible dry wit roleplaying a Far Right White Supremacist WhatsApp group chat in order to get it all into the record. Had to try really, really, hard not to laugh out loud in the courtroom.