Jury service

Since quite a lot of people have asked me what I did on my jury service I thought it would be a nice idea to write some of it down. Obviously I'm not going to go into detail about the cases or the other jurors (you're not allowed by law to do this and you are reminded of this several many times while you're there..). This is more about the proceedings of what happens, the information I would have liked to know before I turned up in court for my first day.

When you first get your Jury Summons through the door the first thought is 'eek what is this? It looks official, what have I done?!' When you open it up it's a very pink form! It has the basic information about the place and date you need to turn up and also a severely worded warning that you have to reply to this summons within seven days or you could be prosecuted. Nice. There's also some other forms about claiming for loss of earnings and a guide to jury service booklet to read. You have the options on the pink form to defer your service if you cannot attend the date given and to provide details of all dates you cannot attend for the next year. You can also give reasons why you think you should be excused entirely but I got the impression that it's really not that easy to get out of entirely. I don't mind doing my jury service, I do believe that it is important and to me it's the responsibility that goes with your right to vote.

The slight complication I had when I got my summons was I was moving house between the date I got the letter and the date of my jury service. I sent an email to the address on the form just asking for confirmation that it was okay to put my new address on the form and that it would be alright and got a very helpful and prompt reply, even offering me an alternative sooner date if that would be more convenient for me. I stuck with my original dates, but was impressed by how helpful the reply was. In-fact my overall feeling about the process was that all the staff realised that a lot of people really didn't want to be there, so they tried to make the process as easy and as painless as possible.

About three weeks before my jury service was due to start I was sent some more information, this time from Nottingham about the specifics for their court, like which door to go in, basic housekeeping like that. At this point if you need to contact anyone about it, you have to contact your local court and not the central jury processing bureau.

A week before sadly my godfather passed away and since I wanted to attend the funeral I had to ring Nottingham Crown Court and defer my jury service by a week at the last moment. After the lady I spoke to realised that I wasn't trying to wiggle my way out of doing it at the last minute, it was all sorted out and I received confirmation in the post the next day.

When I did turn up for my first day I registered when I arrived and sat with all the other new jurors (there were 73 of us!) in the jury waiting area. We watched a video about what happens in court and then sat and waited to be called.

The selection of people to serve on a jury is completely random, the names were picked by a computer. This means that during your average service of two weeks you could do several trials, or you could do none. I did three while I was there and some people did only one. A list of 14-16 names are called for a standard case and if you're one of them you go into a different room and the usher checks to see who wants to swear on the Christian Bible and if anyone wants a different text or to simply affirm, which is the non-religious version.

When you go into the court room the names of all the people involved in the trail and the area it took place in is read out. If you know any of the people, this includes witnesses, barristers and police officers you have to say and means you will probably not be selected for that jury because it would affect the impartiality of the trial. The defendant can also object to any of the jurors if they wish. 12 names are called, again at random, and these people are then sworn in as the jury.

The basic structure of the trail is that the prosecution will state their case, then the defence. Then both sides make their closing speeches and final the judge will sum up the evidence and provide guidance in the detail of the law that applies to the case.

Then the jury go and deliberate. This is top secret and you are not allowed to discuss what you talk about with anyone outside of the jury. The deliberation takes as long as it takes. They brought our lunch down to the room for us, I felt very sorry for people who were desperate for a cigarette and not allowed to leave.

When you've reached a unanimous verdict you go back into court and the foreman (I was the foreman once and I'm a woman, I'm not clear what the actual gender specific term is!) provides the verdict to the judge. If the defendant is found not guilty they are free to go. If they are found guilty then the judge can either pass a sentence then or can give a future date when sentencing can take place. You can phone the court after that date if you're interested in finding out what the sentence was.

My experience of jury service was on the whole good. While there is never going to be a good time for anyone to put their life on hold for a fortnight (or possibly longer), it is a very important service. Yes there is a lot of waiting around between cases to see if you're going to be picked but this is unavoidable. The staff do their best to try and make the experience as easy as possible and the judge in all of the cases I was involved in thanked the jury for what they were doing. Having had the experience of being on three juries I think that trial by jury is robust and invaluable. Any move to erode this right is deeply disturbing.

I found jury service a very interesting experience and I'm glad I've done it. I would be happy to do it again in the future, just not too soon!