Since you will be wanting to claim as much as you can for your loss of earnings (which still won't really be enough, no doubt), be sure and take with you some papers to prove what your earning are. If you have under-declared your earnings for income tax purposes, don't expect to be able to over-declare them now for jury service purposes!
I've never done it, but friends who have say that it's boring as f**k. One of them got a child molestation case, which he said was harrowing.
That question is more difficult than you might think. Shops, offices, pubs etc have a "smoking area" that workers and customers can use for their fag breaks. But in a Crown Court it is essential for the jury persons to be kept separate from the judges, the witnesses, the defendants, the lawyers, and the public, and those groups all have to be kept strictly separate from each other. It would not be acceptable for them to mix together chatting round an ashtray. But it is also extremely difficult logistically to have a whole set of separate outdoor smoking areas. There isn't really a solution to this problem.
i wonder how many jurors form an opinion at the start but wont budge after being presented with the evidence.
Courts and the courts procedure particularly the Crown court are totally out of touch with the real world….you won't get going until around 1100 it'll stop before 1300 for the hour or so for lunch……and then it'll be all over again by 1500 until the next day when it repeats it self…. yet the witnesses will all be called regardless of whether they are needed or not the system that call you will deliberately call the call in favour of the accused rather than the cooking inconvenience of the witnesses, then when you get there by 0900 you'll hang around for the above time table to then be told you are not required... fooking game show….with all the make up and silly clothes...
Oh, really. So enlighten us then; exactly what changes in court procedures would you propose? Seeing as you know better than the accumulated wisdom of many thousands of highly knowledgeable and experienced people, who have worked out the procedures down the years. Come on now, don't be shy. We are waiting with baited breath.
The courts both crown and mags should work the same length of day as the general public they inconvenience for a start………in actual fact they both should be available to work 24/7 like the general public they inconvenience why,…well there is a massive break down and length of time between offence and justice people abscond people forget the waters get muddied…. weight the court and the justice system for the benefit of the good decent people out there, not the smarmy lawyer barristers and judges… is your breath still baited?
and…….there is such a back log of cases to be heard….its ridiculous that the simplest of cases takes 6 -8 weeks to get before a court….the Courts are a public service they should be fooked about with minimalised, cut back made to work longer the same as all the others public services..
