Jury service

[Ric.ror]

Can you volunteer for it?

[starone]

No. It would be interesting if you could. My husband would have loved it. You have to wait until you are called, if ever. Just the luck of the draw.

[bednobs]

as above - no, you get called for it

[dotty.]

I'm exempt now cos I have a criminal record

[razza]

I have to go next monday for 2 weeks,hope Im not needed.

[tiggerblue10]

I hope I never get called.

[Marijn]

Dotty, you wish! It would be good if having speeding fines exempted you from jury service, as I would hate to do jury service.

[starone]

You can be there for the whole two weeks and never get picked to sit on a jury. Complete waste of time. I crocheted a whole baby cardigan while I was waiting. So boring. Unless you get picked of course.

[cathfromsaron]

getting picked isn't much better! fraud cases are tedious and some smaller cases are pitiful (old ladies stealing pats of butter hauled before the court etc) xx

[sara3]

stealing pats of butter doesn't land you in Crown Court.

some offences are "either way" offences, and the defendant often chooses to have their trial in Crown Court.

[starone]

I agree cath, I did get picked for a couple of cases and they were so trivial. Makes you wonder why they bother. One of them was a man who had been caught red-handed and in my opinion they might as well have just put him in jail right away instead of spending all that money on a court case. Also, when the judge does his summing up he more or less tells you what you have to do. Just 12 idiots on the jury!! There must be an easier way?

[Dee Sa]

I wrote once to ask, said I realised I had never been asked to do jury service, they wrote back a short polite note to say no you cant volunteer.

[steg]

i've been picked 3 times for jury duty, had to sit on jury once

[ELVIS68]

I`ve been picked twice and sat on 2 jurys, 1 was for 2 weeks, the second went on for 3 weeks

[Lore]

I did it last year, loved it and would happily do it again.

[ELVIS68]

Did you get stared out by the defendant(s) Loren?

[granny grump]

I've done it once and loved it had two cases Grandad grump has just been called for end of May I would love to do it again

[starone]

I don't think, on the whole, that I would be a very good choice as a juror, the reason being I am biased in favour of the police. I look at the prisoner in the dock and think he would not be there if he had not done something and the police have caught him doing it. A juror should not think that but should try to be impartial. Very difficult IMO.

[welshlibranr]

No, you have to be called, I did it a few years ago, very interesting and enlightening!...........I was called for a GBH case!...........a bit scary, but interesting!......thankfully the evidence against the accused was huge, we were only out for about an hour, only that long because just one juror wasn't sure about the verdict!.............lol.........it was obvious that he did it!...............

[Canary42]

I've been called twice, and sat on a jury each time.

On the first occasion (a drug case) I volunteered to be Foreman - made it more interesting.

On the second occasion (ATM fraud) the judge was later done for paedophilia.

[Lore]

Haha, what are you trying to say? :p

Not that I was aware of, but I seem to remember you mentioning that you did. I doubt it would have bothered me though. Although, when we were on our lunch breaks, I'd often sit outside for the sake of escaping 'these four walls' it was a bit weird seeing family members of the defendants just hanging around in the same area.