Jury Service

Letter isn't recorded delivery so just ignore it. They won't check, but you could deny receiving.

:D

it doesn't mean you are guaranteed to do the full 2 weeks, I only did 4 days last time

I was called up for 2 weeks. Did 4 days. Had to call in for the other 6 the night before but wasn't needed again! Good job as you get pitiful "expenses", my company didn't pay me!

Case involved a couple of bum bandits who were locked up at Her Maj's Pleasure at the time! Pair of lying no good thieves!

id like to do it but have never been asked. Can i put my name forward?

Wear a Ku Klux Klan outfit and you will get out of it soon enough.

I got paid & spent a total of 4 hours on a case in 2 weeks.

no it's just pot luck rusyboy

did it in about 89 when i was 19.
first morning was boring so went to pub 4 lunch.
unfortunately they didnt do food so i had 3 pints.
the whole afternoon was nightmare cos all i wanted to do was sleep

MrKnibbs, don't worry. Sort all selections out the night before. Set mobile to silent and at the appropriate time back or lay on your mobile. Problem solved.

:^0 Dave

Next Tuesday for me.

i went years ago ...........got paid for the week but was home every day before 12

Basically sounds like pot luck then.

ive been called in twice. first time i was at uni. i said i had an exam the following day so they excused me.

got called in again about 3 years ago. turns out the defendant lived just along the road from me. he was accused of abusing his daughter.

obviously nobody at the court was bright enough to cross check the defendants address with the jurors addresses.

i pointed out that this guy lived just along the street. i was asked "does that matter?"

i got excused again so i must be due a third call up.

is a 5/2 shot that you get called up

did it in 78
drug smuggler heathrow
BT employee stealing phones
asian shop lifter

all in 2 weeks

Nova Sicko 13 Jan 21:42
is a 5/2 shot that you get called up

Been called twice.

Never attended either of them.

Don't wear those pyjamas with the arrows on

I was on a murder trial at the Old Bailey a few years ago. A few years later I was called up again but I was too busy to attend so I just ignored the letter and never heard another thing. I wouldn't advise anyone else to do the same though.

I have been called up twice for jury service. The first time i was on a trial for 1 week, the second time i was starring in the trial ;)












































































only kidding. :^0

If you don't want to do it just write back stating that "you don't believe that British Policeman ever lie and therefore you will always convict on a police officer's evidence". They won't want you ever.

If youve been once you may not have to go again for so many years.

Did my stint in 2004 .

They pay as little as they can get away with tbf,typical government i guess.

I assume it would be fine to take in your lap top for betting purposes ,cant see why not.

You can rely on one thing and that is that you will be messed about,the accused is the top dog and can call the shots,

did mine about 20 yrs ago.was picked on first day ,did 3 days on a rape trial which was pure jezza kyle stuff,how it ever got to court even suprised the judge

Think I might go to the Public Gallery during lunch. Perhaps I should start heckling, especially when a lenient sentence is passed. They won't want me then :D

Set mobile to silent and at the appropriate time back or lay on your mobile. Problem solved.

Problem not solved. You have to hand your mobiles in and you get them back at the end of the day.

Just turn up on day 1 with a Daily Mail & Daily Express and be heard to comment loudly what a fine job the police do in this once great country and you've got champagne on ice at home once you get the bustard sent down and defence will have you booted out in seconds.

[i]boxingthefox 13 Jan 22:47

was called up in the eighties, just wrote to them saying i had a weak bladder, dont know if it works now though..............

Drink a litre of water and we'll find out.

Sorry forgot to say yes I got expenses for jury service, but not as the defendant when attending Horseferry Road Magistrates Court to explain my earlier non attendance.

If you don't want to do it, just go wearing a smart suit, collar and tie.

The defence will probably object to you and you'll be sent home.

I may be swimming against the crowd here but imo it's your civic duty to make yourself available for duty if required.

If you were in the dock would you prefer a impartial jury or a cynical judge to decide your fate ?

OOORRRR...... impartial judge or a cynical jury to decide your fate ?

Having a jury of 12 dilutes the chances of having any cynicism that can affect the outcome imo.
You rely on 1 man in a judge it could work out as bad as heads or tails and depending on whether he got out the wrong side of the bed in the morning..
I'd go with the jury every time.

Jury for me,everytime.

Brodie, I could give you examples of the total opposite of what you have posted. But I agree generally with the premise that a jury should be less cynical. Most Human conventions are flawed to some degree.

I found having my name read out appalling,and 7/8 of the rest of the jury will be lily-livered tosssers

I've never done it. Thought I might be a candidate, one time Councillor, school governor... not a peep.

Did it when the first foot and mouth disease thing was about so no racing on.Result! I was working on the racecourse at the time too so at least copped some wages!
Got 2 trials in my fortnight which slightly overran (Say you earn more than you do, you actually find the money they pay after the 2nd week is up isn't too bad)
One nonce case who had a decent brief so we couldnt do him properly, dare say he got justice inside though, and the most boring GBH trial in history involving a 5ft tall 'hardman' and his 5ft tall partner chinning a couple of**ed up students. It got so boring I had to smuggle some vodka into my water one afternoon!
Was fun though when we popped into the local weatherspoons for lunch one day and there was the accused having a swift half..got a nod dunno if he thought i was gonna go**or what!

If I'm on the 'arry case I'll happily sell my verdict :D

Only been called up once and only sat on one case but I found it to be a dreadful and disturbing experience:

DREADFUL in that you are never told anything whilst waiting.You get there before 10.00AM.You sit in a room with 80 or so others,most are so thick that they just sit and stare at the wall without even The Sun for reading material.Once in a while,an 'usher' sticks his head around the door.Some people perk-up thinking that something is about to happen,but the usher withdraws without speaking.At 1.00PM the usher returns to say that you can go to lunch,even though they knew hours before that no one was going to be called.We had to be back by 2.00PM,so only time for a quick snack following the walk to town.

DISTURBING:The defendant on my sole case was facing a serious charge.I had made notes.In his summing up the judge said that the case should never have been brought.In the Jury room,whilst not the foreman,I asked for an initial call which turned out to be myself and another guy for not guilty and the other 10 for guilty.In the ensuing discussions I mentioned what the Judge had said in his summary.'Oh,I don't remember that' was the common response,so I called for a transcript to be brought in and there it was.The other guy was much more eloquent than me in the defendants defence and 10-2 against soon became 11-1 in his favour.An elderly,bigoted East European woman held out against.It was a Friday afternoon and some wanted her to change her mind just so that they could get home.Eventually she relented,possibly on that account.

I couldn't sleep for days after this,thinking what if myself and the other guy hadn't been called.

JURY = POT LUCK,imo.

iamajambo, your tale is more common than a lot of people realise.

Sort of backs up the idea that having 12 people helped get the right decision.

Brodie,Most definitely not.Two alternative people might have made it 12-0 against.

But they didn't did they?

But they were not there,ffs.

By having 12 people sitting, the chances of the correct decision ( in your opinion ) was arrived at. I'm just saying that its better than having 1 judge sitting that was proposed earlier.

although in this case you do appear to have just done what the judge said.

Probably/Possibly half of the people were day dreaming or similiar during the evidence,though you would have thought that they would at least have had the attention span to listen to the Judges summary,but they didn't.

I reiterate that my point is is that it might be pot luck.From 80 or so people they picked 2 or were in the defendant's favour.What if they picked myself and 11 who were against.I would have stayed there until Hell froze over with my verdict but the other guy did more than me for the defendant.

Brodie,My verdict was based upon my interpretation of the evidence and not on the Judges summary.I drew the attention of the summary to strenghen my argument,though there were other,stronger threads to it.

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Brodie 14 Jan 18:24
By having 12 people sitting, the chances of the correct decision ( in your opinion ) was arrived at. I'm just saying that its better than having 1 judge sitting that was proposed earlier.

that was proposed earlier


Where was that then????????

I was called up last year. The most boring two weeks of the year. Spent hours in the jury room reading paper after paper. The food was rubbish and cost a fortune. :(

One case of 1 day... up for dodgy £20's.... so boring

Iamjambo you sound like you walked off the set of 12 Angry Men :)

A fantastic film btw. We do need a Jury service as Hearts mentioned earlier. I would loive a stab at something interesting but have never had the call.

Brodie you can't use the "what if" argument here, the facts are 2 of you were there and in your opinion you reached the correct verdict, what if the correct version was the other way and you two messed it by some smooth talking and stubburn persuasion...

not saying you did...

maybe the average was 3 or 4 people like you and the fact there were 12 meant that the number of jurors meant they can absorb flucuations in the average poplulation... this is all the other fella is saying.

i did Jury service once and after only 3 or 4 mins in the deliberating room i could see how effective having 12 randoms was in not being a bias prosecutor.

If you want a bit of excitement then you can ring up and ask for the Old Baily. you have to run the gauntlet of the press each day and can end up on he same bloody tube carriage as the defendants family on the way home tho !!! this is what happened to me...

i wowuldn't want to do it again and haven't enrolled on the electorol roll since.

Brodie substitutes presumption for reasoning.

i said years ago ....i had an infectious rash......they said dont bother ..we;ll call you some other time.....now i have time......nothing.

Look it is quite obvious what I was saying.
By having more people on a jury you increase the chances of there being people who understand the case and then allow the right decision to be arrived at. It goes back to where I was saying that cynicism can be diluted and is better than having a judge or someone perceived to be more qualified as a better system.
It really was a minor point I was making but as usual the bleedin obvious on here will be contested because its summat to do.

boxingthefox 14 Jan 15:28
Brodie, I could give you examples of the total opposite of what you have posted. But I agree generally with the premise that a jury should be less cynical. Most Human conventions are flawed to some degree.

So you agree with my logic yet its presumptive at the same time.
Got it.

Fair enough Brodie, apologies mate.

No problem boxing ,I can be longwinded and don't get my point across. :D

Brodie, it's not the easiest medium for discussing varied and emotive subjects, perhaps we should have a "Skype" like facility added....then again........Cheers.

what is skype ?

Hi Hearts, you are joking................if not Mr Google will tell you all about it. More eloquently than me anyway!

http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/?cm_mmc=PAIDS|GAWS-_-EME...

thank you.

clever stuff tbf :)

Hearts, I've been using it for 5years now, get as many of your friend on it and it's free telephone/video calls. to anywhere in the world. Have a look at the Skype handsets, you don't even need your Computer switched on. 3 have on their mobile packages as well. It's called VOIP, (Voice over Internet Protocol) deffo the way to go

cheers boxing great link and advice will get it and try and get my family friends hooked up :)

You can get a headset for a couple of quid just to get going. or just a mike (if your comp does not have one) and use your comp speakers. Then you can invest in the fancier hardware camera for video calls, handset etc, if you are using it all the time.

Have a good play around with the site and get the most out of it, it's very simple even I can use it!! GL

cheers :)