Youre Excused but Dont Do It Again
T wo years agone a reader contacted Guardian Money after existence summoned for a quaternary time to serve on a jury. Now he has been called upwards once again – and wonders if five trips to the jury box is something of a tape.
Robert Smith*, 64, says he has enjoyed his previous stints in court and sees it every bit his civic duty, which he is proud to undertake. But it has left him scratching his head as to why he is called so often.
Plenty of people go through their lives never being summoned; others are called repeatedly. Is selection really, every bit the government says, entirely random, or is something else at work hither?
In 2015 at that place were 361,300 juror summons issued in England and Wales, merely the number who actually sabbatum on a jury was just 179,200. With the two nations having a total population of 57.8 one thousand thousand, it means the chances of serving are relatively slim. The Ministry of Justice declined to give figures on the likelihood of existence summoned, only a BBC Scotland assay found that the probability of existence asked to serve is just 40% over a lifetime.
That makes Smith'southward five summons very rare. The MoJ says that if you are called within two years of the last time y'all served you have an automatic right to be excused. Smith's latest summons is about exactly 2 years afterward his terminal.
Numerous theories abound on the internet as to why some people are called to serve and others not. Some believe they are blacklisted because they accept an Irish heritage (dating back to IRA terrorism days), or that they were once a member of CND. Others believe a letter to the courts suggesting you lot are a "hanger and flogger" will get you off the hook. Some reckon they have been picked because they have been at the aforementioned address or same job for years on stop and are a conservative, reliable type.
The reality is rather more than dull. The Jury Central Summoning Bureau (JCSB) randomly chooses names from the electoral annals. It is nether no requirement to telephone call people who are a representative cantankerous-section of society – which is why, in theory, it is possible to have juries which are entirely male or female. Co-ordinate to the MoJ, no attempt is made to balance gender, age or ethnicity. It is as random every bit the prize number generator for premium bonds. Some people hold premium bonds all their life and win nothing, others win again and again.
Smith says those summoned should prize the experience. "I establish it really interesting. Some days information technology can be immensely frustrating, other days rather deadening, and sometimes it's very harrowing. I see it as a citizenship thing – that is, a duty for those called – and should be a source of pride. Sometimes it can make you dubiousness your young man citizens, but every bit I've been with 12 men and women practiced and true, and they take been an absolute pleasure to work with."
Smith acknowledges that he has been 23 years at the same accost, just he adds that his beginning summons was at an earlier address in some other London borough. Information technology ways he has seen the inside of more crown courts than near career criminals.
Ironically, before Smith became semi-retired he worked in Hour, and would regularly write letters to the courts asking for an employee to be excused from jury service. "I worked in a big depository financial institution, and some staff were nether huge force per unit area. Often information technology wasn't them only their managers who would insist that they could non spare the two weeks out of the office."
Back in the 1980s and 1990s such letters worked, but today the courts are less keen to excuse people. "They gradually got much tougher about information technology considering everyone was doing information technology. You can sympathise why – I think the problem was that juries started to be largely made up of retired people and the unemployed."
Really, the figures for excusals remain relatively loftier: of the 361,300 summons in 2015, 27% were excused – upward one pct betoken on the year earlier.
Some people are automatically excluded from a summons. Yous're not wanted if yous're over 70 or under 18. Neither tin can you serve if you take been in prison house in the past ten years. But other than that, you'll need a "good reason" why you are unavailable for the next 12 months, otherwise you will simply be deferred and called once again at a later date.
Grounds for excusal include:
Yous can't speak or understand English
Yous accept responsibilities as a carer
Your excusal would cause "unusual hardship" for your business
You are a member of the armed forces and your absence would exist prejudicial to the efficiency of the service
About other excuses are treated every bit reasons to defer, non to avoid, jury service. Information technology used to be the case that "officials" such as constabulary officers, MPs and judges could gain automated excusal, only those days are gone – constabulary officers who know a particular court well are simply sent to exist jurors at other courts outside their working area, while MPs are allowed to avoid jury service in their constituency but will be expected to attend elsewhere. Yous tin fifty-fifty detect yourself on a jury sitting next to a judge. They are only excused if they are known to parties involved in the trial. Other than that, they accept to turn up, as well.
Much more unremarkably, yous tin delay jury service only but once, and yous have to say when yous will be available over the adjacent 12 months.
The main grounds for deferral are:
You accept a holiday booked
Y'all are having an performance
You are a instructor and it is exam time
Y'all are a taking a temporary chore (eg a university educatee during summertime) that you'd lose if forced to nourish court
The most common complaints nigh jury service come from immature mothers and the self-employed. Mumsnet forums are alive with complaints from mothers with pre-school children. "The accompanying bumf says they pay £32.47 per day for any childcare costs incurred … round here that would just about pay for 3 hours' worth of babysitting," says one, while another says, "I just completed eight days of jury service (in Scotland) and, despite having 3 pre-schoolers, I was not excused."
The £32.47 is the fee paid by the courts as expenses to jurors who serve four hours or under, for x days or fewer. The figure rises to £64.95 for more than iv hours a day, so goes up the longer the case lasts. The courts will also pay £5.71 a day for food and drinkable.
Many self-employed contend that £64.95 is hardly enough to embrace their losses and, what's more, the person has to provide prove of loss of earnings earlier the sum is paid out. Last year, enquiry by Churchill Dwelling Insurance found that one in xx employers refused to pay their staff if they undertook jury service, while a third stopped afterwards five days. At that place is no legal obligation for firms to pay employees while on jury service.
Boredom is perhaps a bigger issue for many who are chosen upwardly. Much of the time a juror spends in crown courtroom is in a room waiting to be called. The MoJ is trying to tackle this, saying its "juror utilisation rate" has ascension by 12% since 2006 to around 71%. Just that still means a lot of people spending a lot of fourth dimension twiddling their thumbs.
Typically, jurors are required to be available for 10 days, only sometimes longer. The MoJ says: "The courtroom will always telephone call more than people than may be needed to ensure they have enough people when the juries are existence picked. Most jurors are called for approximately 10 working days. During this time y'all could sit down on a number of juries covering a wide range of trials; still this cannot exist guaranteed."
If y'all are called for a trial, 15 of you will be led into the courtroom room, with 12 eventually selected. But don't expect an episode of The Skilful Wife, with jurors challenged past fancy lawyers. In Britain, the court clerk will select 12 out of the xv potential jurors at random to sit on the jury. Only and so will yous find out if you are on a fascinating trial or something rather more tiresome. And don't ever think about skipping service – a juror in Leeds who failed to turn up at court, saying "I can't be bothered, information technology's really irksome", was arrested for antipathy of court, while another was fined £100 for filing her nails and reading a magazine while hearing a instance. The judge chosen her behaviour "disgraceful".
* Robert Smith is not his real name
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/20/jury-service-repeated-summons
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