Jury duty in 3 days - anxiety issues

dandy-candy

skateykatey wrote: »

We had to use a different lift to the general public so you are kept apart from any potentially angry relatives, the jury room is totally secure.

I'm pleased to read this. The courts I'm at is in an area with lots of gang crime so it's a bit worrying. Do we swear in before the defendent and public? Will they hear our names? Things like that would be very stressful.

dandy-candy

Just read online that they do get you to state your name and read the oath in front of the defendant. In tears again, don't know how I will cope with that.
Those people will be there because they have been accused of doing a terrible thing, I don't want them to know who I am! I've got a really distinctive name too, the only one on that 192 site for the whole country. I don't want anyone looking me up with a grudge.
I've been really trying to cope without meds the last year and if I wasn't due there on Monday, I would go to the drs instead and ask for a new prescription. I really don't think I can do this.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

dandy-candy wrote: »

Just read online that they do get you to state your name and read the oath in front of the defendant. In tears again, don't know how I will cope with that.
Those people will be there because they have been accused of doing a terrible thing, I don't want them to know who I am! I've got a really distinctive name too, the only one on that 192 site for the whole country. I don't want anyone looking me up with a grudge.
I've been really trying to cope without meds the last year and if I wasn't due there on Monday, I would go to the drs instead and ask for a new prescription. I really don't think I can do this.

it wont just be you there having to swear in though.

and the reason your there is because the defendant wants to be set before peers to have a fair trial, sometimes the crime can seem minor compared to what the crime is for intimidating a juror for the defendant or his/her family.

i wouldnt worry so much as to whom may pick you soley out of the jury to intimidate or pre meditated harm they would not know who made what decision to find them guilty or not guilty.

calm yourself down, i have been a witness and i was brought in through different doors to the defendant and his family and was allowed to stay longer than the defendant so ensure that he was out of the area, left via different doors etc the only time he saw me was when he was in the dock.

as juror you wont be asked questions by the defendant, or solicitor, its just a sit listen and take onboard evidence, listen to what the judge instructs (to wich the clerk or juror manager will tell you again what the judge wants from you or to ignore) then when the time comes and the summing up is done, youll leave to preside over the case in your own room with your fellow jurors.

ofcourse you may know the defendant wich you would have to ask to be dismissed because you cannot be impartial to the case then.

onlyroz

My colleague has just got back from jury service and he says that many people who get summoned end up being sent home without being used. He said that each week there is a pool of around 100 jurors and they are sent off as required to the trials - and in each group sent off there are a few spares. Any excess people from the original pool are sent home. You also can't be used if you know (or think you know) the defendant.

As for returning a verdict, my colleague said that they returned an innocent verdict even though their instinct was that he was guilty, because it was a case of one person's word against the other.

Sambucus_Nigra

My jury service was the most boring fortnight of my life - I read that many books...the only good thing was getting out early one day, going to my friend's house and meeting her BF at the time, who then introduced me to his chums and I gained a whole new life. Brill!

I think you are getting worked into a stupor for no reason whatsoever. It's not like it is on the TV.

dandy-candy

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

I think you are getting worked into a stupor for no reason whatsoever. It's not like it is on the TV.

Thank you for the replies. I do get myself into a tiz when when I'm stressed and imagine the worst possible outcome, even though I know inside its really silly. I keep thinking if I can get through doing this I will have achieved something, I just need to calm down about it all.

spacey2012

Think of it as watching a peice of theatre . Two actors fronting it out for the trinket

belfastgirl23

I just keep seeing myself in your posts more and more I also have a tendency to catastrophise and jump immediately to the worst case scenario - this is something I've been trying to at least call myself out on (even if I'm still doing it, noticing that I'm doing it). So I'm not a big fan of driving and the night before going somewhere I don't know I get into a tizz about what if I can't find the place or there's no parking or I get stuck in a one way system. Which just sounds crazy to anyone who's a confident driver. By and large I arrive where I'm going, there's a huge car park with two cars in it and I'm half an hour early but I've spent hours the night before going over worst case scenarios. And it doesn't even help!!

You are definitely doing this here. The most likely scenario is that you'll get there and not be called. Equally likely is that it'll be for some very minor offence. I think if members of the jury were being followed home it would be reported on the news this is a very very unlikely scenario - you are probably equally likely to get hit by a bus in the next week. This is just fear of the unknown. It's normal. I think in my case my conscious mind then tries to make excuses for the anxiety (I'm anxious in case I can't find parking) whereas I'm just anxious because it's the unknown.

I don't know if it helps to think about it this way, it helps me a little. As does distraction!! Make sure you have a few games on your phone or ipad - I find soduku very good in situations where I am anxious - it's enough to distract me without being so much that it seems too hard when I'm feeling anxious.

But just more than anything, don't feel alone or ashamed. This is really a problem a LOT of us have struggled with and if you can broach the subject with anyone at the court, including the officers, you can safely bet that they will have seen and heard this before MANY times.

Sambucus_Nigra

dandy-candy wrote: »

Thank you for the replies. I do get myself into a tiz when when I'm stressed and imagine the worst possible outcome, even though I know inside its really silly. I keep thinking if I can get through doing this I will have achieved something, I just need to calm down about it all.

The worst possible outcome is that you die because of all this panicking. Which means you would not make it to the court.

If you feel bad on the day, tell them you are ill but they may just defer anyway. So go, take good reading material and 'lean into it' as they say.

olibrofiz

I did jury duty 18 months ago, and felt very anxious about going but resigned myself to the fact I had no real reason to get out of it (I did conjur up some imaginative excuses! but knew I'd never get away with them)

During the two weeks I got to leave early most days, was told not to come in for a couple of days, and sat around a lot the other times reading or chatting to other potential jurors who were just as terrified as me

I was on one case, on the last day, which had about an hours worth of evidence and we reached a verdict within 30 minutes. I seem to remember there were people there on a 5 week case, but they HAD been asked if they'd be free for that amount of time. And there were other people who never got picked at all

Deep breaths, and keep saying to yourself 'it's only two weeks, it'll be fine' xx