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Justice Squadron at the Municipal Fortress of Vengeance

Started by Consignia, February 23, 2011, 12:37:03 PM

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Consignia

AKA I've just received Jury summons. I'm a little aprehensive about this, since I'm probably going to be out of pocket due to small amount of expenses they give you. On the other hand, I've always wanted to do jury duty, so I don't want to get out of it or anything.

Anyone else here had experience of jury duty? It's interesting stuff, or mostly just boring legal procedural stuff? Hopefully some lawyer with showmanship will break out the Chewbacca defense.

momatt

You get bonus points if you fuck the defendant you know.

Consignia


Blumf

Just a FYI; It's considered bad form to masturbate whilst the prosecution is giving evidence in a rape case.

mook

say you will only turn up if these two are the defending council:



failing that, rumpole.

momatt


The Masked Unit

Being called up is one of my worst fears, as I run a small business and taking the time off would severely fuck us over. Presumably the only way to get out of it is to give the people selecting the jury a reason not to pick you, by acting like a complete cunt or something, which is what I would have to do.

Zetetic

Or you'd ask for an excusal, and get it. Your situation is even in the advice given to summoning officers when deciding to allow deferrals and excusals.

QuoteJurors may be excused for valid business reasons. Applications of this type should, however, be looked at closely and granted only if there would be unusual hardship. A small business is an example of a case where such hardship might be suffered, although each case must be considered on its individual merits.

That'd probably be easier and less liable to get you prosecuted. Broadly, it's not difficult to obtain deferrals or even excusals if you do actually have a particular reason.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Consignia on February 23, 2011, 12:37:03 PM
Anyone else here had experience of jury duty? It's interesting stuff, or mostly just boring legal procedural stuff? Hopefully some lawyer with showmanship will break out the Chewbacca defense.

I was on the jury for two cases and found it fascinating. That said, the subject matter of the first case was a bit too "interesting" for comfort, and in the second one the defendant was declared unfit to stand trial, so it was over in minutes.

What surprised me about the experience was the overall lack of closure. People moaned about that reality programme where they got some celebrities to be jurors in a fake trial (including two who would never have been allowed to be jurors in real life) because you never got to find out if the defendant had actually done the crime, but that is pretty much my experience of it. It also surprised me how willing some people are to condemn someone without any proper evidence.

biniput

Well I too have been summonsed for such duty myself this morning. I have 3 days to reply by filling out a letter with details etc or else i get fined. I will be watching this thread too for info.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

I'm pretty sure raping and then murdering the accused would get you out of jury service, as they would no longer be able to attend trial, or do their shopping.

Big Jack McBastard

Do you know what type of case you've got?

In any case if some piss-ant law and they're obviously guilty then let them off and spread a little joy.

Consignia

The day finally draws near, I start tomorrow. For all the shit it's causing me at work, I better damn well be chosen for the entire period. I'm looking forward to it, but it really has come at the worst possible time.

Small Man Big Horse

I was called up about a decade ago, but wasn't chosen for either cases that took place, which was a bit gutting as I was looking forward to dishing out some old style justice.

Turning up in that Judge Dredd costume may have counted against me though, admittedly.

Still Not George

I was called up while I was at Uni. I turned up with my NUS card and explained I was a student, and got into one of the kind of conversation more usually found in comedy shows.

"I shouldn't be here, I'm a student."
"But you wouldn't have been called if you were a student."
"Yes, I know. That's why I'm telling you, I'm a student. I shouldn't be here."
"But if you're a student, why are you here?"
"Because I got a jury duty summons. You get fined for ignoring those. But I'm a student, so I shouldn't have got one. I did send a letter back, but no-one replied."
"So you're a student, and you sent someone a letter saying that, and then you got a summons for jury duty?"
"What? No. I got a summons, and then I sent a letter, and apparently no-one reads letters any more."
"So, let me get this straight, you're a student?"
"YES."
"OK... you shouldn't have been called up."
"I KNOW."

... and so on. Eventually I managed to get past her to someone not apparently descended from a goldfish who decided that since I'd responded to the summons, I had to stay there the rest of the day as the caseload was advertised in the waiting room, but then I shouldn't come back the following day. He also told me I should have written to them. I somehow managed to resist the urge to strangle him.

Then I spent 3 months trying to get them to pay back my travel expenses, which was purest joy.

Consignia

Yeah, I don't think it's like that anymore. You have an initial response than you reply to before you actually get your official summons. They should have paid your expenses though, it's not on that they didn't.

momatt

Quote from: Still Not George on April 17, 2011, 06:43:25 PM
Brilliantly maddening dialogue.

That's great stuff!  If I use that in an award-winning sitcom, I'll give you five pounds, I promise[nb]no awards and you get fuck-all[/nb].

hpmons

I once sat in on part of a murder trial, and it was surprisingly boring.  They just spent a couple of hours talking about a door.

WesterlyWinds

Try to make eye contact with the defendant and then smirk. I know a guy who did this once and the defendant was sure they were out to get them and asked for a new jury member.

Turgid Bosun

I had this a bit ago, and it was a strange combination of quite interesting and unimaginably boring. Fortunately, being a Bloody Stoodent, it didn't interfere with my life too much - in fact I probably got more work done than I would have done had I been free to sit at home and fuck about on the internet. I only had to actually go in for two days in the end, which I think is probably around the maximum dosage you can take before the monotony overwhelms the novelty of it. I remember being moderately terrified by the small print on the forms that explained exactly how the pittance you receive for your troubles would increase very slightly if you found yourself having to serve for over 200 days.

The best part is when you have to swear an oath, because you have everybody's attention while you read it. This is an excellent opportunity to act on any of Peter's Mad Thoughts you might have been having.

Consignia


fat handed twat

I did jury duty a few years ago, it's quite common to sit there for two weeks and not get called up at all. I waited 8 days before I got on a trial where some bloke was allegedly selling pills at a folk music festival but it was declared a mistrial after a few hours. They weren't allowed to tell us why either so it was a bit unsatisfying.

Zetetic

Quote from: hpmons on April 18, 2011, 12:51:55 PM
I once sat in on part of a murder trial, and it was surprisingly boring.  They just spent a couple of hours talking about a door.
Luck of the draw. I've sat in copyright infringement (Crown Court, rather than Magistrates') and some manner of assault and they were fairly interesting.

Consignia

#23
Apologies in advance dear readers, I didn't want this thread to become self-indulgent, but I've got a rant that needs venting.

So after a day and a half of waiting around doing bugger all, I finally get a case. Which is subsequently immediately thrown out of court. Fair enough, the trial was a sham. However, I've just been notified that I'm one of the few not required tomorrow, but might be for Thursday, so I can go back to work. The problem being, I work away from home and it's almost impossible to work remotely. So, due to poor scheduling I'm going to have a mega-commute tomorrow, followed by more pissing around if no more trials are scheduled, whilst unemployed locals[nb]not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's far easier for them to be released early[/nb] are getting still being pulled in.

It's no-ones fault or anything, and it's all luck of the draw, but the system could be scheduled a bit better to take into consideration people who have complicated work commitments. I'm sure loads of people have got far worse problems at the moment, but I'm just feeling a little frustrated at being inconvenienced by it all.



Nothing to see here. Whinge flounce.

rudi

I've always wanted a go but have yet to be called. Not fair.

Zetetic

I've just seen that you've said that it came at the 'worst possible time'. Why didn't you ask to have it deferred?

Consignia

Quote from: Zetetic on April 20, 2011, 01:00:00 AM
I've just seen that you've said that it came at the 'worst possible time'. Why didn't you ask to have it deferred?

Naturally I was exaggerating. I meant more of the fact in terms of days served due to all the bank holidays mean I only serve a small number of days, and they didn't explain they meant two weeks not 10 working days and few cases scheduled. I had lot's of stuff on work that popped up in the last couple of weeks that I had arranged around the service. Besides, I was a being a right whingy twat there, so I apologise for dramatising. I didn't really have a case for deferral.

madhair60

I want to get called for jury duty.  How do I get called for jury duty.

Consignia

All you need to do, is be registered to vote. You'll get randomly called up at some point. It's completely luck of the draw, I know very few people who've done Jury service. It's quite good when you actually do something. A fun little game is to guess who takes the oath (on a religious book) and who affirms (pledges allegiance to Richard Dawkins); I was quite surprised who went which way.