Jury service question.

[skeggysteve]

I've just been reading about the Hillsborough inquest:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36128693

The jury have been there for 2 years.

Three questions:

Do they get any better monetary remuneration than someone who does a one week trial in a criminal court?

How do their employers cope, do they get any help?

Do they get any help with remembering all the evidence?

[PF62]

skeggysteve said:

Three questions:

Do they get any better monetary remuneration than someone who does a one week trial in a criminal court?

How do their employers cope, do they get any help?

Do they get any help with remembering all the evidence?

To answer your three questions.

I don't believe so, but I bet that the jury is made up of retired, housewives, and government / council employees, so it doesn't matter.

As such for those who are employed it won't matter how long they are there.

When I served on a jury the trial lasted a week. Only one person took any notes at all, me. For the majority of the rest of the people on the jury, remembering the evidence didn't seem to appear to be a factor in their decision making process.

[davamer23]

Loss of earnings can be claimed with set maximum amounts per day. The claimable amount increases depending on the number of days the service goes into. £67 is per day Upto the "standard" 10 days when I did it last month. There was an extra £5.12 claimable per day for food/drink.

Edited by davamer23 on Monday 25th April 22:14

[98elise]

davamer23 said:

Loss of earnings can be claimed with set maximum amounts per day. The claimable amount increases depending on the number of days the service goes into. £67 is per day Upto the "standard" 10 days when I did it last month. There was an extra £5.12 claimable per day for food/drink.

Edited by davamer23 on Monday 25th April 22:14

As someone who is self employed I simply could not survive a long trial on that money. I have about 2k per month household bills before I even think about anything else.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

98elise said:

As someone who is self employed I simply could not survive a long trial on that money. I have about 2k per month household bills before I even think about anything else.

You can buy insurance to protect yourself from the financial difficulties of jury service, and it isn't expensive. Often an optional extra on house contents cover.

[nikaiyo2]

skeggysteve said:

Three questions:

Do they get any better monetary remuneration than someone who does a one week trial in a criminal court?

How do their employers cope, do they get any help?

Do they get any help with remembering all the evidence?

I have literally just finished doing Jury Duty

skeggysteve said:

Do they get any better monetary remuneration than someone who does a one week trial in a criminal court?

Yes its a sliding scale, 1-10 days is about £67per day, then it goes up until 200 days plus is £288 per day!

skeggysteve said:

How do their employers cope, do they get any help?

They just struggle on, there is no help. I was in the office at 6am a couple of days to try and get stuff done before going to the Court for 10am.

skeggysteve said:

Do they get any help with remembering all the evidence?

Yes if you are on a difficult trial you get offered counseling etc.

Fortunately I was on run of the mill rubbish, a fairly minor assault and a property crime. They did have a trial scheduled to last a month or more and in the selection process the jury officer asked for people to recuse themselves if the length of trial would be an issue, so that jury panel was pretty much made up of retired people, and sort of unemployed types... Prob not ideal!

[anothernameitist]

On JS soon.

My office is opposite the Court so I will be in every so often.

My Self Employed status won't come into play until week 3 as that's when the amount Courts will pay goes up.

Hope only to be there two weeks.

[skeggysteve]

nikaiyo2, thanks.

[ModernAndy]

PF62 said:

When I served on a jury the trial lasted a week. Only one person took any notes at all, me. For the majority of the rest of the people on the jury, remembering the evidence didn't seem to appear to be a factor in their decision making process.

I had the exact same experience. Even got accused by one particularly stupid jury member of thinking myself above them because I was taking notes and looking back at them and asking people to consider things they clearly hadn't given a second thought to. It was an absolute furnace of rage in the jury room when I pointed out they hadn't taken any of the steps they were told to by the judge when deliberating. We ended up having to stay an extra morning as the arguing had taken up the afternoon.

[FurryExocet]

ModernAndy said:

I had the exact same experience. Even got accused by one particularly stupid jury member of thinking myself above them because I was taking notes and looking back at them and asking people to consider things they clearly hadn't given a second thought to. It was an absolute furnace of rage in the jury room when I pointed out they hadn't taken any of the steps they were told to by the judge when deliberating. We ended up having to stay an extra morning as the arguing had taken up the afternoon.

It's quite an odd experience. On my case, most of us had come to a guilty verdict on the last day, there were 2 that went not guilty, when we asked one of them the reasons, she said "I think he's guilty, but I don't think he should be punished" .......
The other lady had a dislike for the police and that was her reasoning behind the not guilty.
We gave a majority verdict in the end and after that, we found out he was already serving time for the same for of offence (quite a serious one which has ruined a poor man's career and life). I had already figured out he was in prison already, based on the guards in the courtroom throughout.

One of the other trials was in its 3rd week and was being extended.

[hondafanatic]

Just to add another question - are you given specific rules about not doing internet searches on the accused?

[Turquoise]

How can the courts expect people to put their professional life on hold for two years?

Who's to say an employed juror couldn't have missed out on a promotion or a raise in that time? If self employed, your business would be dead in the water after 2 years.

I would hope in this instance, knowing that it was going to be a hugely lengthy process that being self employed would be enough for exemption.

[surveyor]

What about holidays? Do jurors have to give up pre-booked holidays. Do they get to take a holiday? 2 years with no break is a long time....

[nikaiyo2]

FurryExocet said:

It's quite an odd experience. On my case, most of us had come to a guilty verdict on the last day, there were 2 that went not guilty, when we asked one of them the reasons, she said "I think he's guilty, but I don't think he should be punished" .......
The other lady had a dislike for the police and that was her reasoning behind the not guilty.
We gave a majority verdict in the end and after that, we found out he was already serving time for the same for of offence (quite a serious one which has ruined a poor man's career and life). I had already figured out he was in prison already, based on the guards in the courtroom throughout.

One of the other trials was in its 3rd week and was being extended.

Thats so strange and completely the opposite to what I found!

There was a real cross section of society in the trials I was directly involved with. A couple of early retired public sector types, a really posh dude, a couple of younger people etc I think all those were quite engaged in the process. I did make notes, more in one trial than the other, the one I made few notes in was pretty cut and dried 11-1 guilty at the start!

It was quite strange I think in the 1st trial we wanted to find the guy guilty, but due to the terrible way the prosecution presented the evidence we could not be "sure of guilt."

In the second trial I think we all wanted to find the girl not guilty, however her story was completely unbelievable!

[davamer23]

hondafanatic said:

Just to add another question - are you given specific rules about not doing internet searches on the accused?

You are ordered by the Judge to not research Defendants/Victims or witnesses, you are also ordered not to speak about the case at all outside your number, even to Spouse/Close friends. You must endeavour to not allow anyone to potentially colour your view of the case as it is only you and your fellow jurors who will hear the evidence.

[jith]

ModernAndy said:

PF62 said:

When I served on a jury the trial lasted a week. Only one person took any notes at all, me. For the majority of the rest of the people on the jury, remembering the evidence didn't seem to appear to be a factor in their decision making process.

I had the exact same experience. Even got accused by one particularly stupid jury member of thinking myself above them because I was taking notes and looking back at them and asking people to consider things they clearly hadn't given a second thought to. It was an absolute furnace of rage in the jury room when I pointed out they hadn't taken any of the steps they were told to by the judge when deliberating. We ended up having to stay an extra morning as the arguing had taken up the afternoon.

Watch this Andy:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfAbTyAcgpE

One of the best movies ever made addressing the problems of apathy and prejudice in the jury system.

Fonda is phenomenal in it.

J

Edited by jith on Tuesday 26th April 11:13

[BMRuss]

Turquoise said:

I would hope in this instance, knowing that it was going to be a hugely lengthy process that being self employed would be enough for exemption.

I got called up to Jury service in January, I am also self employed, I returned my form asking them to excuse me and they did with no problems, although they did say I would still be expected to do Jury service in the future.

[hondafanatic]

davamer23 said:

hondafanatic said:

Just to add another question - are you given specific rules about not doing internet searches on the accused?

You are ordered by the Judge to not research Defendants/Victims or witnesses, you are also ordered not to speak about the case at all outside your number, even to Spouse/Close friends. You must endeavour to not allow anyone to potentially colour your view of the case as it is only you and your fellow jurors who will hear the evidence.

Many thanks.

[hondafanatic]

BMRuss said:

Turquoise said:

I would hope in this instance, knowing that it was going to be a hugely lengthy process that being self employed would be enough for exemption.

I got called up to Jury service in January, I am also self employed, I returned my form asking them to excuse me and they did with no problems, although they did say I would still be expected to do Jury service in the future.

At the risk of going slightly off the original question; does anyone know how people are selected? Is it a completely random event?

This is an interesting topic that I've not thought about a great deal beforehand.

[davamer23]

At random from the Electoral Roll as I understand it. You can be called multiple times. You can defer the duty once, which I did. Certain circumstances can get you excused as per the Self employed poster above.
If you have completed Jury service within the last 2years and get called upon again you can refuse.