Has anyone done Jury service and how did you find it?

I served three times, some time ago. The most memorable case was a dangerous driving one and the Judge announced that the Prosecution, after a review, had decided not to proceed. The Judge asked if one member of the Jury could stand out and give a 'not guilty' verdict. I was on my feet within a second. It had been a boring case.

Thank you for your views. Yes Tempest I would also recommend the film 12 Angry Men which has been used over the years for training purposes to help people to see how to interact and put across their views whilst also listening to other's views. A brilliant film!

I was called a few years ago but I was mid- chemo treatment at the time so was excused. I was given a new date very quickly. The trial lasted 6 weeks and was harrowing at times. But I met a great bunch of people. We all returned to the court for sentencing - the judge was amazed to see all 12, said he had never seen that before, and thanked us for reaching the decision we had. Out of the 12, 6 of us still meet several times a year for dinner and one is a new BFF. Was an experience I wouldnt have missed

I am waiting for a letter from my GP to be excused after having been called six times! I have served twice, been excused when my son was newly born, and five years later when he was starting school, and excused two years ago on medical grounds. We all got letters asking for our availability a number of years ago, and son and I ignored it ( Letter? What letter?)
The law-abiding Bodach replied and was called a few weeks later. From the citation I’ve just received it says the cases will be heard remotely, social distancing will be observed etc, and, when I called to ask how to be excused, was told jurors will probably be in a city centre cinema!
Like Fevertree, I was horrified by the attitude of some of my fellow jurors, and just hope I’m never on trial!

I did Jury Service a few years ago. It was very interesting but we never got to reach a decision after listening to evidence for over a week, as the Judge was taken ill and we were dismissed!

I'm a retired magistrate who sat not only on criminal cases but in the family court and at the Crown Court on appeals. I was called for jury service soon after I was appointed, but in those days, magistrates were not allowed tosit on juries. Now they can, but I have nevet been called again. However, it is not something I would ever recommend, and I would never wish to serve. You never know whether you will be needed, or for how long. There's an awful lot of noring sitting around, when you could be doing something useful. You may get an open-and-shut case, or you may get one that drags on for weeks. You may get a murder trial with harrowing evidence that could haunt you ever after, or a case which is so complicated that it is beyond the wit of a legally-untrained mind. No, stick to watching crime documentaries on tv!

I also did jury duty at the Old Bailey. It was incredibly boring for most of the time as I was a back up, so for the first 4 days I had to go in and sit in the waiting area. Finally called up but the case was thrown out by the judge after 3 days! The best part was chatting to some of the others waiting - 14 of us I seem to remember. It was nearly 12 years ago now. Interesting eclectic mix of people with a vast array of stories to tell.
When the case eventually came up none of us on the jury could understand why it was being heard at the Old Bailey as it was a pretty minor offense. Hope to be called up again though. Could be more interesting next time.

Agree fevertree, my experience exactly. I was a juror on an serious assault case. Two jurors obviously had not listened to the evidence. They wanted to give the accused another chance at any cost. Accused was found guilty and was already serving a sentence for a similar offence.

I have never been called and don't want to be. My DH was on a jury, years ago, in a case of attempted murder. A man had tried to set fire to his girlfriend but fortunately didn't succeed. They found him guilty. DH said it was interesting but unpleasant.

I’ve been called and served twice. Once at Southwark Crown Court and once at the Old Bailey.
The worst thing was waiting around to be chosen though I met some lovely people while we waited

I’m the only one of my family to have been called to serve, about 15 years ago. I found it very interesting. It was a very odd case, involving a young woman who thought she may have been molested by the two young men in court, after being given a date-rape drug by someone else. One of the young men was rather gormless, and had admitted that they had picked up the girl in the other man’s car. She couldn’t remember what happened, and there was no evidence, so I don’t know why the case had gone to court. We acquitted them both, for lack of evidence, but I suspected that the other man had been involved in some form of action with her. The gormless one was nearly in tears when he was found innocent, and I hope he ditched his friendship with the other man.

No. Now retired, I have worked for both Magistrates and Crown Court (admin roles). I think I'm probably excluded from Jury Service, I certainly was, while working in the Justice System!

The case we were on was extremely boring And I found it hard not to nod off
Same here RosesAreRed not helped by the fact that one of the jurors took me for a lunchtime drink. I was on two cases, a domestic and a raid on an off-licence and I was grateful not to be on anything more harrowing.

I was called for jury service in the late 80s/early 90s. I was a civil servant at the time, and as it was this time of year and as I was a post office clerk the timing wasn't great, my boss wasn't best pleased as we would be at our busiest period! She was also informed there was a big/long case that was due to be heard and I could be absent up to xmas
In the event I was disqualified from the jury as it was a fraud case that involved the PO. I was instead put on a minor case that started that afternoon, that one was involving a fracas and minor assault, the judge quickly decided there was no case to answer and threw it out of court. I wasn't called for anything else and was sent back to work on the Wednesday, a complete damp squib! I had been looking forward to it too.

I did jury service about 20 years ago in a small courthouse which had one Crown court and one magistrates court. Only 12 potential jury members turned up on the first Monday so there was not any choice of jurors. I think there were at least 3 cases in the fortnight I was there.

The best bit was one sunny afternoon when the defense barrister was defending his client and a mobile phone started ringing. We jurors all smiled at each other as we had checked all our phones were off before entering the court. The judge was very cross and when the defense barrister retrieved his ringing phone from his robes the judge told him sternly to switch it off.
The next morning the court usher told us that the judge had fined the barrister a day's wages and the barrister had to apologise to the jury for his bad manners.

I HATED my time on jury service. First of all I was summoned at a very bad time in my life. The start date of the jury service clashed with the first anniversary of my father's death, and when I asked to be excused they refused stating it was not an illness. They deferred it for 4 months, but it was still a disaster, as the people were vile! It took 4 months to recoup my travel expenses! I will make any excuse I can to be excused from it next time!

I served once in my 60s. Glad I had the expert. What concerned me was we were sent to deliberate at lunch time. Two younger people just wanted to say not guilty and go for lunch. They didnt want just sandwiches. It was an assault on a girlfriend. All the men said not guilty. On the train back home another female juror, who was a midwife, thought like me he was guilty.

I was called up years ago a very difficult time for me. I was getting a divorce doing a full time degree course at uni. I had to juggle two young children going to school etc. It was the worse time ever for jury service I was really not happy about it. Sitting around wasting precious time and listening to idol gossip. When I had far more important things to be doing.

I never have and I hope that I never do.

I was on a jury about 30 years ago. It was a sexual assault case. A man was being accused of assaulting his stepdaughter several times. There was no corroborative evidence, just her word against his. He and the mother had been divorced for some time and no accusations had ever been made until they found out that the man was getting married again, It all seemed very flimsy.

We had all sorts on the jury. The chairman insisted on praying everytime we sat down to discuss the case, one of the men said the girl must be telling the truth because she cried (obviously hadn't met many teenage girls) while another man wanted us to find him guilty whatever because he must have done something at sometime! Another lady and I seemed to be the only ones to be able to grasp the difference between gut feelings and reasonable doubt. In the end we found him not guilty on one charge - the girl herself admitted she didn't know if this assault had really happened! We couldn't agree a verdict on any of the others and it went for a retrial. Can't imagine another jury would have managed any better with the paucity of evidence.

I've been called twice. The first time I was excused as I had just had a baby and wasn't able to get childcare. The second time was in 2002 and I served on one case. It took a week all told . It was a drugs smuggling case and we found the defendant guilty. He was sentenced to 18 years! The judge took the view that the drugs involved could have been taken by someone and killed them so it was tantamount to manslaughter. We were quite shocked by the length of the sentence and were excused any more cases after that. Quite an experience and quite a responsibility! I still have no doubt he was guilty but I was quite shocked at the sentence .

I was called for jury service a few months after my 18th birthday and haven't been called again.
It was an interesting experience all round. I was nervous when it came to my turn to swear in as virtually all the jurors had done so before me and all sworn on the Bible. I knew I couldn't do that, it would have been like perjury to me so I had to ask to affirm. It was clear that it was fairly unusual to all except the clerk and judge as everyone turned to look at me. That was the scariest thing that happened though.
The two cases I served on were what I'd describe as "petty thefts". A fairly young lady who was being tried for shoplifting two cheap children's toys close to Christmas and a man accused of stealing coins from phone boxes. The young woman's case was a sad affair.
I was called into the court for a third "meatier" case but wasn't selected to sit on the jury. I would have liked to have sat on a more interesting case but it is a big responsibility, especially given I was so young.
Having done it once would I want to do it again? No, not really but if I was called and I had to I would but it is likely that I would be medically exempt.

I was called in my twenties and, like fevertree, I was quite shocked at the ignorance of fellow jurors. I found it pretty boring and read a few books while waiting.

About a decade on, I was called several times in a row - but declined as I was 'breast feeding' (permanently - for years). They gave up in the end!

Yes nannysprout I was shocked too when I read that sentence. I often watch the Border Force programmes and sentences for drug smuggling, even amounts worth up to a million, only seem to be up to 8 years.

Interested to see that others agree with me about the attitudes of some jurors. The accused people in all three the cases we heard were eventually found to be guilty and subsequently we learned that all had previous convictions for similar crimes (assault, theft of a motor vehicle, drug dealing).