Jury Service Rant

I have just finished a two week stint of jury service and despite my initial trepidation i must say i am glad i went as it has shown me what a complete and utter f@cking waste of money it is.
In the two weeks there has only been three cases brought to court , there has been thirty people on jury service over the two week period, many of which have been paid for time off work, some have also got claims for car, bus , train travel on top and one bloke even got £198 a week sanctioned for kenneling his dog as he would'nt be home to look after it.

The three cases....
1. Brought to the court..........prosecution offered no evidence, case dismissed !!! WTF, there are at least 5 court officers and a judge and two barristers plus the thirty people in attendance for jury service, all getting paid, and the prosecution offer no evidence.
2. Case went through, dealt and completed
3. Brought to the court..........gets started, during proceedings one witness says something that has the possibility to unwittingly inluence the jury.....trial halted. Possible retrial later in the year !!!! At one point in this case while discussing photo evidence there wasnt enough copies in the court for all parties to see, ffs mr barrister, how many courtrooms have you been in? one judge, one opposition barrister, witness and the jury, work it out on your hundreds of pounds per hour to operate calculator.

The jurors who had attended the previous week told us that they had no trials at all for the whole week completely wasting all of their time. Absolute f@cking joke.    Rant over.

And?

Look, if I had two-weeks off work PAID I'd be cock-a-hoop. Actually, where do I sign up for this jury service lark?

Quoted from kingofthekippers

And?

Look, if I had two-weeks off work PAID I'd be cock-a-hoop. Actually, where do I sign up for this jury service lark?

they only pay max £63 a day so out of pocket on wages for a start, plus i presume its my taxes that actually pay for all the waste of money highlighted above including matey boy from scunny to kennel his f@cking flea bitten mongrel

Quoted from moosey_club

they only pay max £63 a day so out of pocket on wages for a start, plus i presume its my taxes that actually pay for all the waste of money highlighted above including matey boy from scunny to kennel his f@cking flea bitten mongrel

But I didn't think you paid Taxes.  Dont you live on an island (thought they were all tax havens)  

Quoted from Civvy at last

But I didn't think you paid Taxes.  Dont you live on an island (thought they were all tax havens)  

A Whooossshhh there i am afraid ??

I would love to be asked, hasn't happened yet.

My son however has been asked twice and he's only 24, he couldn't do either because he was at Uni and will not get a third chance because you only get two goes and if you say no twice, that's it.

Quoted from moosey_club

A Whooossshhh there i am afraid ??

Not surprised.  I have got my wires totally crossed and was talking absolut b0llox (as normal)      

In my defence I had just finished a 12 hour night shift and was brain f*cked  

id take jury service, easy cash and id get time to catch up on work, lol

Quoted from Black Haddock

I would love to be asked, hasn't happened yet.

My son however has been asked twice and he's only 24, he couldn't do either because he was at Uni and will not get a third chance because you only get two goes and if you say no twice, that's it.

Err, not sure you get a choice in the matter, don't you have to do it if summoned?

Quoted from Wurli

Err, not sure you get a choice in the matter, don't you have to do it if summoned?

You can defer an initial call but have to give a date/ timescale when you can attend.
Not many ways out of it other than certain religious grounds, i really wasnt keen to do it on concientious objector grounds but i was told by a magistrate i know that wouldnt stand up, so my next plan was to just say ...."oh i know him" and therefore not be impartial and be excused, i actually did know somebody involved in the first case that i was called for so had to be excused but much to my disappointment they still had other cases to hear that week so had to hang around.
My top tip though is  when/if you get called into court wait until they run through the names of people in the case and pick one of the witnesses and say, i know him/her. Dont pick the defendant as they are already present at this time and could say "no you dont". The counsel will ask how and just say you worked with them for a couple of years, no proof is required, they take your word, after all you are the jury, and therefore they will just exclude you from that case.

Apparently though you can actually volunteer to be go on the list if you so desire.