Jury service

molerat

I do wonder how the selection process works. I was called for a second time after about 5 years and there were 6 of us who served on that first jury. 40% of a jury being called again must be more than coincidence.

teddysmum

I had a work colleague called twice within a few years and he was very disappointed as on the one occasion he was appearing to be chosen the defendant's party rejected him. (Perhaps looked too much like a teacher)


The trouble is that, if you are retired there are no perks for you.


At 60, husband was paid a full day's wage (but no accounting for overtime which he did every day).However, except on the one day he was used, he was free to go around 10am, so a day's pay for no work over 9 days.

Owain_Moneysaver

teddysmum wrote: »

The trouble is that, if you are retired there are no perks for you.

Not even a free lunch on days served?

Danday

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Not even a free lunch on days served?

Have you ever had a lunch provided by the Civil Service? If you have you will know why I mention it.

teddysmum

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Not even a free lunch on days served?

He said they were given a voucher , which could be spent on a daily coffee or a meal of your choice, but the travel allowance was just the price of a return bus ticket, so you used the bus and walked (ok in nice weather) or parked nearby and put the money towards parking, which you couldn't predict as there was no way of knowing whether you would be staying for one or several hours. (It was summer so he used the bus.)

Tigsteroonie

I've just done Jury Service. We were given the choice of either a food voucher for the cafe in the court, or a set amount reimbursement to our bank account for days served/waiting. I took the latter, as I could buy a sandwich lunch for £3 in Tesco and make a tiny profit!

I hope the OP has by now returned her forms to say that she wishes to be excused due to her caring duties. I've heard of others being successfully excused on that basis.

In my fortnight service, I only actually served on one case. I saw three other court-rooms, but wasn't in the 12 randomly selected each time. I completed two novels, learnt a new card game, and met some brilliantly fun people Oh, and ate rather too many wine gums.

Owain_Moneysaver

Danday wrote: »

Have you ever had a lunch provided by the Civil Service? If you have you will know why I mention it.

We got quite a nice hot lunch provided by outside caterers, with a choice from 3 mains (which we had to order at 10 am for midday delivery).

Danday

Wow, they are improving then.

After they decided to do away with canteens within all of the Crown buildings, you had a choice of dried up curly sandwiches, stale cake and lousy coffee.

I remember when the post office canteens used to be the place to go - fantastic food and as much as you wanted all for equivalent of 10p!!!!

TBagpuss

molerat wrote: »

I do wonder how the selection process works. I was called for a second time after about 5 years and there were 6 of us who served on that first jury. 40% of a jury being called again must be more than coincidence.

These days, it is done electronically so it is genuinely random, and coincidental if people are called more than once. However, the electoral roll is used for the names so if you are not registered to vote, you won't be called. And of course some people may be much more reluctant to serve, and therefore make more effort to be excused if they are called.

Presumably this may mean that in some areas, where there are high numbers of people who are not registered, those who are, are more likely to be called.

My mother was called once, but wasn't able to go (it was for a date about a month after we moved house, but for the court local to the old house, so she would have had a 2 1/2 hour trip each way, and in addition, she was pregnant and it was for a block of time which included her due date. She said that the person she spoke to told her that either of those would have been sufficient for them to accept she couldn't do it. (they said had it just been the pregnancy, she would have been deferred to a later date, but because she moved out of their 'catchment area', she was just crossed off the list.)

CKhalvashi

teddysmum wrote: »

He said they were given a voucher , which could be spent on a daily coffee or a meal of your choice, but the travel allowance was just the price of a return bus ticket, so you used the bus and walked (ok in nice weather) or parked nearby and put the money towards parking, which you couldn't predict as there was no way of knowing whether you would be staying for one or several hours. (It was summer so he used the bus.)

I bought lunch in a small cafe owned by a French guy when I was on jury service a few years ago.

I had to pay it from my own pocket, but had no problems getting the costs back from the court. Lunch at a smaller, locally owned business, even in a city centre came up to about a fiver a day.

I also car shared with someone going in a similar direction at similar times. Apparently I could have claimed the full payment, but only asked for half then split it depending on whose fuel had been used as it seemed a much fairer use of the courts money.

I served IIRC 4 days over the 2 weeks and not sitting on a trial.