Jury Service: Things I Wish I'd Known

[Lichtie78]

Yes 

Superb

[Benjamin_Nevis]

I was cited for duty in 2001. It was an utterly underwhelming experience save for the fact I got a day off a job I absolutely detested.

After a morning of sitting about the court bored as f**k, drinking shite coffee and being offered a plate of cheese rolls that could quite easily have been put through a single-glazed window, we were finally brought into court with us all sitting on the public benches. There were two cases, the first one was an assault where the boy changed his plea to guilty; the second one was an alcoholic husband and wife who would tank a bottle of whisky each on a daily basis. He'd apparently accused her of shagging her brother and she'd responded by stabbing him with a fairly blunt kitchen knife (they were from Arbroath which explains much). Anyway the woman's solicitor was a nervous wreck and at some point the husband had decided he didn't want her prosecuted, the young solicitor had failed to submit some important paperwork, so the courtroom was subjected to the Sheriff tearing this poor c**t a new arsehole in front of all the court staff and jurors who would not now be needed. It was arsehole behaviour tbh. 

We were sent home at about 4pm. I got a cunting the following day from my arsehole of a manager for not driving for 30 mins from Forfar to Brechin to work the half hour until 5pm 

['WellDel]

Got cited for court twice within a few months, a couple of years back. First was for jury duty at the high court, then as a witness at the sheriff. 

At the high court I got picked to sit on a case where 4 guys and 1 woman were caught transferring/in possession of over £1M of cannabis. Their defence was laughable and they were obviously bang to rights. One guy lodged a bizarre special defence trying to blame his recently deceased friend, and a security guard who worked at the site where the drop took place had very clearly been nobbled, as when they put him in the witness box and went over his statement, he suddenly had a bout of amnesia and said he couldn't remember any of it. The guys gallantly got the female off by saying she knew nothing of it, (she clearly did), and it was guilty all round for the rest of them.

Lasted a full week and was quite interesting. A few of the other jurors were pretty sound and we went for a bevvy on the last day when it was over.

At the sheriff, I was called as a witness to an assault outside a local boozer. I was there to pick someone up and they traced car registration from cctv. I saw the people involved leaving the pub but genuinely never saw the incident and told them this in my statement. It didn't stop them calling me as a witness for the prosecution though.

Spent 4 days sitting bored out my skull in the witness room, before being called and sworn in, only to confirm I'd seen nothing and leave again about a minute later. Complete waste of time but a skive from work I suppose. 

[HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows]

On 19/08/2021 at 17:35, ICTChris said:

Regarding wearing suits in court

 

This scene has one of my favourite film lines of all time.

"Just a group of people banding together to fight a common enemy."

Even your friends??

"Oooh yeah."

Fucking love this film.

[Rodhull]

Think I've been cited about 5 times now. Feels like every time my exemption runs out I get called up nearly immediately. Only been picked once where I had to spend two weeks on a wrongful death charge due to a car crash. Wasn't too bad for the most part but was quite tense as the jury was pretty evenly split. Decision ended up dramatically changing last minute when one of the jurors changed his mind.

Was called up again recently and would have been due to do it in a couple of weeks but thankfully due to 'administrative reasons' I got another letter saying I didn't have to go. Pretty glad as doing it is never a pleasant thought but the idea of doing it all sitting in one of the screens of an odeon cinema (for social distancing I assume) would have been bizarre.

 

 

[thistledo]

10 hours ago, Day of the Lords said:

I was cited for duty in 2001. It was an utterly underwhelming experience save for the fact I got a day off a job I absolutely detested.

After a morning of sitting about the court bored as f**k, drinking shite coffee and being offered a plate of cheese rolls that could quite easily have been put through a single-glazed window, we were finally brought into court with us all sitting on the public benches. There were two cases, the first one was an assault where the boy changed his plea to guilty; the second one was an alcoholic husband and wife who would tank a bottle of whisky each on a daily basis. He'd apparently accused her of shagging her brother and she'd responded by stabbing him with a fairly blunt kitchen knife (they were from Arbroath which explains much). Anyway the woman's solicitor was a nervous wreck and at some point the husband had decided he didn't want her prosecuted, the young solicitor had failed to submit some important paperwork, so the courtroom was subjected to the Sheriff tearing this poor c**t a new arsehole in front of all the court staff and jurors who would not now be needed. It was arsehole behaviour tbh. 

We were sent home at about 4pm. I got a cunting the following day from my arsehole of a manager for not driving for 30 mins from Forfar to Brechin to work the half hour until 5pm 

I'm not sure what's worse here, the awful "cheese rolls" or your manager going tonto over half an hour. The manager sounds like an outrageous c**t tbh. 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

11 hours ago, thistledo said:

I'm not sure what's worse here, the awful "cheese rolls" or your manager going tonto over half an hour. The manager sounds like an outrageous c**t tbh. 

She was an utterly dreadful individual, and completely incompetent as well. A shining example of a Council employee who made into a management position purely by being around for donkey's years. She regularly bullied and blamed the younger girls in the office for mistakes she herself had made, once reduced the 16y/o trainee to tears because she'd forgot to get a receipt for a pint of milk, would often cancel folk's days off because she was terrified of being short-staffed and indeed once attempted to cancel my week's holiday at about 4pm on the Friday before, because reasons. Absolute boot.

Applying for and getting another job, and handing my notice in was a truly glorious day, she was absolutely furious as I'd bypassed her for a reference and gone straight to her own Manager who clearly didn't like her that much either. 

[Mark Connolly]

On 24/08/2021 at 00:58, 'WellDel said:

Spent 4 days sitting bored out my skull in the witness room, before being called and sworn in, only to confirm I'd seen nothing and leave again about a minute later. Complete waste of time but a skive from work I suppose. 

This seems to be an issue with cops too.

The case I sat on, there was a matter of law that needed to be discussed during the evidence of one cop, which went on through the end of the day.

We all got sent home, came back the next day and listened to him confirm the time he took a statement. He was done in about 30s. One of his colleagues then entered the witness box, confirmed she was on the duty desk when the accused was brought into the station, and that was her done. They both probably had to miss two days (or at least one and a half) of work for what probably amounted to 2 minutes of total evidence

[Granny Danger]

On 23/08/2021 at 23:46, Day of the Lords said:

I was cited for duty in 2001. It was an utterly underwhelming experience save for the fact I got a day off a job I absolutely detested.

After a morning of sitting about the court bored as f**k, drinking shite coffee and being offered a plate of cheese rolls that could quite easily have been put through a single-glazed window, we were finally brought into court with us all sitting on the public benches. There were two cases, the first one was an assault where the boy changed his plea to guilty; the second one was an alcoholic husband and wife who would tank a bottle of whisky each on a daily basis. He'd apparently accused her of shagging her brother and she'd responded by stabbing him with a fairly blunt kitchen knife (they were from Arbroath which explains much). Anyway the woman's solicitor was a nervous wreck and at some point the husband had decided he didn't want her prosecuted, the young solicitor had failed to submit some important paperwork, so the courtroom was subjected to the Sheriff tearing this poor c**t a new arsehole in front of all the court staff and jurors who would not now be needed. It was arsehole behaviour tbh. 

We were sent home at about 4pm. I got a cunting the following day from my arsehole of a manager for not driving for 30 mins from Forfar to Brechin to work the half hour until 5pm 

My take from this is that people from Arbroath do not sharpen their kitchen knives.  I would suggest that this is not a widely known fact.

[superwell87]

I've been cited for jury duty 3 time, each at the High Court. However I was actually balloted at the start of the year. I actually enjoyed it to be honest and found it not to be as bad as I thought it would have been. Felt unusual sitting watching it all remotely at the cinema at Braehead though. Case I was on lasted 4 days and we deliberated in less than an hour (which says a lot I think). 

[Mordecai]

I've been cited for jury duty 3 time, each at the High Court. However I was actually balloted at the start of the year. I actually enjoyed it to be honest and found it not to be as bad as I thought it would have been. Felt unusual sitting watching it all remotely at the cinema at Braehead though. Case I was on lasted 4 days and we deliberated in less than an hour (which says a lot I think). 

More importantly, what did you get for lunch?

[Raidernation]

Never called in Scotland, can’t get called here afaik because I’m not a citizen.
One of my stepdaughters had been called up 3 times in the 11 years I’ve been here, first time a week after her 21st birthday

[superwell87]

3 minutes ago, Mordecai said:

31 minutes ago, superwell87 said:

I've been cited for jury duty 3 time, each at the High Court. However I was actually balloted at the start of the year. I actually enjoyed it to be honest and found it not to be as bad as I thought it would have been. Felt unusual sitting watching it all remotely at the cinema at Braehead though. Case I was on lasted 4 days and we deliberated in less than an hour (which says a lot I think). 

More importantly, what did you get for lunch?

Got a ham sandwich the first day which was crap, tasted liked cheap value stuff, then opted for a Caesar salad the other days, which was actually not bad. 

[Busta Nut]

On 29/08/2021 at 19:28, Mark Connolly said:

This seems to be an issue with cops too.

I know of a case where the coppers didn't show, about 3 times. This maybe was the reason.
Those two were lying cúnts anyway. Police Assault charges dropped. 

Like mentioned before though the judge was a snobby w****r who wasn't interested in hearing anything and couldn't wait to dish out fine for breach

[Bert Raccoon]

50 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

I know of a case where the coppers didn't show, about 3 times. This maybe was the reason.
Those two were lying cúnts anyway. Police Assault charges dropped. 

Like mentioned before though the judge was a snobby w****r who wasn't interested in hearing anything and couldn't wait to dish out fine for breach

[welshbairn]

On 23/08/2021 at 22:43, Lichtie78 said:

Was supposed to have jury duty today, but I never read the letter properly at the time and never confirmed my attendance online. Tried phoning the helpline number given several times today, and emailing, but no answer given. Are they going to lock me up and throw away the key?

Thousand pound fine on its way.

[Hedgecutter]

Was reading this thread whilst away with work as a zero hours day-rate contractor, which had me worried about significant loses one day.  Imagine my absolute delight when I got home last night to find a jury service letter sitting there waiting for me.

Says to reply within 7 days, but the letter's undated and I've been away for a month.  No idea when I'll be asked for the next trip away, but it's likely to be around the time they're asking for.

Would be in my financial interest to just pay the £1000 fine if required (assuming a short notice "my client wants me to head out next week" exemption was rejected), but would I somewhat ironically end up with some form of criminal record?

[Mark Connolly]

2 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Was reading this thread whilst away with work as a zero hours day-rate contractor, which had me worried about significant loses one day.  Imagine my absolute delight when I got home last night to find a jury service letter sitting there waiting for me.

Says to reply within 7 days, but the letter's undated and I've been away for a month.  No idea when I'll be asked for the next trip away, but it's likely to be around the time they're asking for.

Would be in my financial interest to just pay the £1000 fine if required (assuming a short notice "my client wants me to head out next week" exemption was rejected), but would I somewhat ironically end up with some form of criminal record?

I always thought you looked a bit jury service avoidy.

GUILTY

[Adam]

Funnily enough, shortly after reading this thread I got a citation for jury duty at the high court next week, hoping the court system hasn’t somehow infiltrated P&B as I haven’t been called for years.

[microdave]

Maybe there's a Mumsnet user working at the jury calling up service getting revenge on the p&b massive.