Be Excellent To Each Other

I've been called up for Jury Duty on the 21st of this month!

Has anyone here ever done it? Any hints/tips on how to stave off the inevitable boredom when I don't get picked and told to sit in a room for 2 weeks?

And on a slightly more serious note, I'm aware that the law says your employer *must* give you unpaid time off work to do it; the court will pay any loss of earnings. But the court is 9am until (usually) 4:30pm and I usually start work at 5:30pm. No way am I sitting in a court 9 - 5 every day and then rushing off across town to make work without any dinner and/or getting changed - any of you lawyer-types have any input on what I can say if work fail to give me my filled-in Loss of Earnings Certificate?

It doesn't matter what hours you normally work, your employer will have to give you the time off and pay you for it.

Cool beans. Don't suppose you have a link I can print off to show my manager and rub it in his face if he/HR say otherwise (seriously, it wouldn't be the first time they've made people pull illegal shifts - it's usual for people to do 14 hours shifts, go home and come back 7 hours later to do another)?

Ummmm, I'll see what I can find. I'm not a lawyer or anything, I just happen to know that this is the law.

Thanks, man.

I did this years ago, i seem to remember spending lots of time watching cricket and drinking cups of tea.

I also inexplicably forgot to bring a pen on the first day.The looks of disdain my fellow jurors gave me still haunt me to this day.

Actually, if any lawyer types are on the board, I've often wondered about jury duty. While I'm not against doing my bit, the fact that I am my company means that if I were to do jury duty, I'd likely see my entire livelihood collapse within the space of about three weeks. Would the courts just say "tough shit", or is that grounds to 'defer' doing your bit until such a time as it's possible? (The only possible scenario aside from that would be to end up working like a maniac during hours outside of court, which would probably mean getting literally no sleep during the time of the case.)

For geeky types some of you don't know how to use google

This seems pretty comprehensive, hope it helps

http://www.cjsonline.gov.uk/juror/

I did this a couple of years ago. Take a good book, as there's a fair chance you'll be sitting around doing nothing for a while - although if you don't get picked for trial on a given day, they often send you home by midday if there's no trials starting in the afternoon.

The worst thing about it is the people you serve with. 12 good men and true my arse. I wanted to kill one woman by the end of it. I served two trials with her, and in the second she wouldn't budge from a conviction because she was convinced we got the first one 'wrong' (released a guy on drug charges with very little evidence against him. After the trial it came out that he had a record, which of course clearly meant he was guilty....)

you missed a trick in not having the title as call of jury duty.

Fantastic. So, judging by that website, if I get called up, I'll have no choice to attend, but because of the nature of freelance work, I'll get literally no money back at all, because there's basically no way to prove 'lost' earnings on one-off commissions! On top of that, if the thing lasts for more than two weeks, I'll likely lose my entire livelihood, although that at least can be argued against, apparently...

That's the bit I was worried about. My employer have a history of being complete arses when it comes to things like time off, and they'd quite likely say "well it's not when you're due to work so you can still come in, therefore you aren't losing anything. Bye, then."

In which case I'd have to scramble across town every day for 2 weeks, and probably end up being late to work and lose pay. And the Loss of Earning Certificate has to be taken with you on the *first* day, so it all has to be sorted *before* I'd be late.

Perhaps you could get yourself disqualified? You could pick up a community order every ten years, or alternatively "regularly visit a medical practitioner for treatement" for a mental health problem, which I'm sure you could fake in a pinch. Letter come through? Off to the GPs to treat the depression you suddenly find yourself suffering.

That happened to my Dad, as he's self employed. He wasn't too happy about it.

Still, work when you're off duty and sleep through the trial.

There quite reasonable I believe. My friend got his delayed based on the fact he was busy with his PhD.

I'm sure that if you are the only person in a company (as I am) they can't just call you up. I need to answer phones, do marketing, and do any ongoing work and bookings. You can't prove loss of earnings as big jobs can come out of the blue, let alone damage to the business.

Would I be disqualified if I explained to the judge that I would burst out laughing if somebody raised an objection?

I very rarely read books but managed to get through two or three average-sized novels when I did jury service. I didn't serve on a trial till the last half of the second week, but still had to go in each day anyway. I can sympathise with Craster, you inevitably get thrown in with jurors who are prepared to convict on the basis that the defendant "looks guilty" and those who'll simply go along with everyone else so they can get out that bit quicker. 12 Angry Men is really not a million miles from the truth.

Heh, I'll never have to do this
...and quite pleased I am too.

Why's that?

Apparently, it's pretty easy to get out of jury service - the papers complain about it every now and then, contending that professional people who could do a decent job of it always get out, leaving the dregs and n'er-do-wells to sit judgement on people, and treat it like they were the audience in an episode of Trisha.

I think only Daily Mail readers should be allowed to do it. They could even give away special coupons with the paper.

Give it a catchy name and they'll be flocking.

"You are invited to join the Vengeance Squad at your local Municipal Fortress of Justice! Refreshments provided."

Do they even have objections in British courts, not on the telly?

I remember someone telling me that basically everything is effectively scripted.

Shewolf is evidently posting from one of Her Majesty's Detainment Centres.

They don't let girls do Jury service!

What, even on documentaries?

MR SILLY FACE

They most certainly do have objections in UK courts, but I've never seen it happen in a magistrates' court (I did some court reporting for the local paper a few years back). Whether this is because the procedure consisting of two people offering their point of view rather than cross-examining witnesses makes them unnecessary, or objections are simply banned in magistrates' courts, I've no idea.

What?!

In that case, I definitely can't do it!

I won't have to do it because ..here we go.. if you have a history of mental problems or are a depressive you can simply get a Dr to confirm this in a letter and you are out of it