I’ve never been summoned, which is kind of weird since I’ve been a registered voter for 40 years. If I were called, I’d serve, but only with great reluctance. I know it’s my duty and I will do my duty, I guess, if I have to, really have to. But god, I can’t even imagine how excruciating it would be to sit there and try to pay attention to stuff about the case. I don’t have all that much attention, and just getting to the court and into the courtroom would probably use up all I have for the day. Listening to a bunch of dry legal instructions would make my head explode from boredom.
If it were a really interesting case - like a violent crime or something involving a famous person, I might be intrigued, but I have doubts about whether I could ever sleep again after hearing and seeing documentation of a violent crime.
I’ve never been summoned, and while in theory I’d be happy to sit on a jury and would find it fascinating, I’m not sure if I could actually be on a jury.
If it were all regular hours then I could manage by working in the evenings instead, but sequestering would be very difficult due to childcare as well as work (my work involves going on the internet, too, so if that were banned then I’d have zero income and I hope I’d be let off the jury). I could get a friend to stay overnight to look after my daughter, but not for weeks on end, and there’s no-one else she can go and live with.
If any court did try to force to serve then yes, I’d try to find a way out of it until my daughter’s old enough to be at home alone overnight, because long sequestering would mean she’d end up in care - which is why I doubt a court would try to force me to serve on such a case.
It’s quite easy to get excused in NSW too, if you have a reasonable excuse. You just go back into the pool of potential jurors and receive another summons a couple of months later.
I have been summoned twice and served once (weirdly as the foreman).
I was in my mid 20s and the youngest member of the jury and yet they elected me to be the foreman.
It was gratifying even though we ended up with a hung jury.
I do try. I’ve been summoned twice, and reported both times. I feel I’ve done my duty.
Combine that with the fact that I work with convicted felons every working day, and I feel more than justified in arguing that I’m no longer the type of juror the judicial system really wants.
But if they still want me after learning that, I’ll show up.
You can, but the maximum for the first ten days is £32.47 per day up to four hours. That includes childcare costs. That is not a lot of money. Even someone in a 7-hour-a-day job (the usual eight hours minus breaks) on minimum wage would lose money. If they had to pay for childcare too, then even without sequestering they could end up paying a lot of money (relative to their wage) to serve on a jury.
Over four hours, it’s £64.95 per day, but I suspect most jury service is actually four hours.
According to that, the court can ask you to stay overnight, and they’ll pay for your accommodation, but won’t pay for anything else like extra wages or childcare. So it seems that overnight stays do happen.
The one time I’ve been called and actually served it was a pro se defendant in a city ticket case who didn’t know enough to cut me, and I doubt it will ever happen again. I was called again a few months ago for an indecency with a child case which settled while the jury panel was standing in the hallway. Chances of me actually serving on a jury in any case in general and in a sex offense in particular are very, very close to zero (and I would rather spend several days at the dentist than serve on a jury), but I would never, ever deliberately phrase my answers in an effort to get cut for the sake of saving myself a pain in the ass. The thing about jury duty is that it’s jury duty, not jury funtime, and as dumb as it sounds it’s absolutely the only way the system works. Somebody has to step up and do it, same as any other duty.
I was once selected in college but lived hours away so I “got out of it” because obviously it wouldn’t have worked out.
Second time I filled out the online form and was given a time to show up and actually transposed the numbers (instead of, say, 2/12 I wrote down 2/21 in my calendar). So on the 20th I go to look up what time I need to be there tomorrow and FREAKED OUT that I missed it.
Called them and blubbered and apologized profusely,asking what next. “Uh, nothing, we’ll send you something in the mail”.
Never got another mention in the mail or by email. Weird.
On a related note, any idea why they don’t specifically screen for those that are retired or semi-retired or housewives whose children are grown or childless couples, one of whom doesn’t work? Or for childless teachers or teachers with grown children…etc?
Seems like they’re the ideal candidates because they’ve got chunks of free time in which they don’t have a day job and then have to care for children in the evening.
Agreed; I was thinking that the majority of people aren’t unemployed for more than a year whereas those other groups I mentioned are probably going to be in that zone for a solid 10+ years. Maximizing efficiency and all that.
I’m thinking of my insanely sharp grandmother who could have served easily from 75-90 (lately I’d say her hearing is too poor). Or the CFC (childfree by choice) teacher couples I know who could easily swing it in the summer.
I would not mind being on the right jury for a reasonable amount of time. That said, last time I was called, I did try to get out, because it was in stupid state court where the lawyers are a joke and the judges exercise no discretion over scheduling or efficiency (where I am – YMMV). The Judge asked plaintiff’s and defendant’s counsel how many witnesses they had and how much time they’d need to present. Plaintiff said he had 21 witnesses, defendant, 25, and they put their heads together and agreed that 51 trial days should pretty much suffice. For a simple wrongful discharge case. Which would probably have got them jailed in federal court from what I’ve seen.
I said FTN and – in the face of some very aggressive probing by the Judge, who didn’t want to excuse anybody just because they didn’t like the idea of such a long trial – was fortunately able to (truthfully) point to an overseas work trip that was coming up.
I’ve gotten notified twice; once to the actual bigtime court downtown but when I called in the night before as instructed I was out for whatever reason, once showed up at my tiny city court and waited around a few hours before being thanked for my time and dismissed.
My workplace pays for our missed days, and since I’m stuck on night shift, jury duty would allow me to see my family for as long as it lasted. I’d even dig being sequestered, as long as I could bring reading material. My kids grown, no work hardship, no relatives that are cops, lawyers, criminals or victims, open-minded and reasonably intelligent, nothing to stand in my way at all so of course I’m never called.
