h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

a friend just got called.

i am hoping i never will.

is it as bad as i imagine?

FABT

My father once did jury service, and he enjoyed it. I would have thought that enjoyment depends on your other jury members, and the interest factor of the case.

What are your objections to doing it?

My brother got called up two weeks before his University Finals exams

He had to reject the call. He was disappointed, my Dad was furious as he's always wanted the call and never got it. I have so far missed out on the pleasure.

My old boss during my PhD studies was called up but never called upon from the jury pool. He maintains to this day that is was becaue he was a university lecturer. He reckoned they didn't like people on the jury to be too intelligent as they might form an opinion of their own and not just concentrate on the evidence presented to them. Myself I reckon it was just wour grapes

One slight problem I could imagine is ending up in a jury on the trial of a Mafia drug lord. That could be an interesting proposition.

Actually, your boss might not have been too far wrong. I don't know if British jury selection works the way it does in the US (the prosecuting and defence attourneys get to pick the jurors). But it has been found here in the UK that smartly dressed, intelligent looking, professional people are less likely to be chosen as jurors, particularly if the defendant is young and 'working class'.

My boyf was called for jury duty, he spent a week and a half sitting around waiting for delayed cases to start and was then sent home because a huge trail came up and he wasn't prepared to give up months of work to do it.

Does anyone remember Tony Blair being called up for it around the time of the last election he turned it down due to prior committments...

I have heard an argument against the present jury system which is supposedly a trial before your peers. These aren't necessarily my views but I thought it was interesting. The argument said that basically, for any large, complex, drawn out trial the only people that can afford the time to sit on the jury are the unemployed or the retired. It continues that in these times of high employment the least employable members of society are the only ones left available for jury duty and these may not really be your peers.

I (having been unemployed for a short time) wouldn't necessarily agree that the unemployed are not capable of understanding the facts presented at trial, and wouldn't dismiss the retired either - as this argument seems to do. What do you all think?

k

-My brother got called up two weeks before his University Finals exams-

well that's one objection!



i suppose is cant really imagine i could ever take two weeks out of my life when it wouldnt cause devestation!


and what if its a really nasty case, i'd have nightmares forever.

i know i am really selfish thinkning like this, but i can be honest on h2g2 cos i know you'll understand about feeling that way

FABT

Well imagine having being on the Rose West trial jury

Major councilling required afterwards?

I imagine most of the trials you will sit on are relatively dull, it isn't often that we get mafia overlords or serial killers on trial (thank goodness).

FABT, Do you ever go on holiday? Does that cause devastation in the rest of your life?! I don't think it is like it is on TV either, you don't get sequestered in a hotel for two weeks, you stay at home. So how would that cause problems?

k

actually i havent been on holiday for about 6 years.........


but i'm just panicking that the world cant turn withou me,.....and yes....i watch too much telly


i'm a bit worried about them calling up students jsut before exams though......do you get an automatic first for that?


FABT

Been there done that. Some cases are more interesting than others.
They ask if you would be able to spend the time on long cases.
Most of the time it's sitting round waiting to be called and then going home if you're not called.

Two of my sisters were called but they were let off as they both had small children to look after.

You can turn jury service down if you have a good enough reason! So no good praying for the call up in exam week hoping for an automatic first

FABT: are *you* the type of person you would want if you ever came up for trial?

The things that colleagues have said when called up for jury service give me the willies ("I don't see why I need to go along every day. I'll have made my mind up on the first day: I'll know if they're guilty from their face")

I hope and pray that if I am ever (falsely!) accused, I'll get someone willing to think ratuionally about it - so I hope that if ever I'm called up I can do the same: if I don't someone worse may!

I was called for jury service 22 years ago, but was pregnant and throwing up all over the place, so I sent in a letter from my GP explaining the situation and was released from service. I seem to remember that you had to have a pretty good reason for not attending.

heard a criminal record can get you off too......

now what can i get that wont dmage my employment prospects.......


FABT

Become a peer of the realm.
Might need a bit of money to bung old Tony B Liar to get that one though.

As to the jury selection point, it doesn't work like that.
Fifteen people per trial are called down from the jury room-three extra in case of people knowing defendants or just forgot to say they were going on holiday etc. Names are read, you get sworn. There is no 'selection process' as they have in the States (thank the gods!).
In fourteen years of attending jury trials I have *NEVER* seen an objection to a juror by defence or prosecution, except on the grounds of illiteracy in complicated cases-and that's normally handled by the Judge in any event.
As to your employer, Orcus, he was right in as much that we *don't* want people going off on investigative jollies because they've seen two episodes of Morse. Jurors swear an oath to try the case on the evidence, not on their whims. If you don't hear something you think is important, you can ask the question, through the Judge, but normally you get the evidence that it is fair and right to give you.

Blues Shark - after fourteen years, would *you* want to go before a jury? Situations can look so different after real experience....

I'd actually have no qualms. I am constantly re-assured by the ability of juries to come to at least sensible and understandable decisions, even if I sometimes don't agree with them.
I couldn't do my job if I thought the system wasn't in principal fair and safe.
And most of the safeguards and such are there to protect defendants, remember.

This is something I'd *love* to do - and I've never been called. I have the time too, but they'd have to find a minder for my son if I was sequestered.

And darn it, didn't my daughter get called up just after she started college. She did her darnest to get out of it but couldn't come up with a good enough excuse, and hated every minute of it.



S*d's law