I found it easy to be honest all I done was wright to the court saying my 1st child was due that week ( which she was & born at the end so poss could have done 1st week but that was all )
Also I was at the time married to a Registered Mental Nurse which excused me totally
No excuses to get out of it just the real thing
The other thing that could have kept me out was the fact a lot of my family are / were civil servants which would excuse me
keebs26uk:
Nice to know my record from my past keeps me out of this it proves to be useful for something. I wondered why in my 28 years of life I have never been asked, well now I know why
I’m 36, never been asked and have no record… Think it’s just luck and numbers… I live in an area where there’s not that much crime = less cases + higher portion of society to use.
True I guess less crime will mean theres less of a chance of getting asked. I don’t suppose Ipswich has a huge amount of crime compared to some other places
Dave the Renegade:
limeyphil:
i’ve never been asked to do it, and i doubt i ever will.
but if i was i’d claim everything i could, then after a few days i’d take the ■■■■ and get chucked out.You would take the ■■■■,and be had for contempt of court and thrown into jail for a month.
it’s usually 24 hours.
I did a stint last year, sat in the jurors lounge at 9am until my name was called over the P.A to sit on a case, if not, play pool, watch dvd’s and read books, as you are not allowed out of there until lunch time and then again when the court finishes around 4.30 - 5pm. I was lucky 3 clear cut cases over 3 separate days in the fortnight i attended and convictions within 1- 2 hours of deliberations, some of the other jurors had an extremely complex case of 5 company directors and accountants committing multi -million pound embezzlement, that was slated for a 6 week trial ( i bet their employers loved that ! ).
I was told the selection process was randomly done by computer from the council tax register, if you have previous convictions then you will not be asked to participate.
Your chances of being called for jury service are about the same as winning £50 on the lottery assuming you only buy a single ticket per week.
This means you might be called 3 times in your life, and you might not be called at all!
Where you live shouldn’t make much difference, as even the most remote rural areas come under some crown court or other.
The electoral roll is used to select jurors, which means if you keep moving around every 5 years, you’ll likely find yourself being forever “passed over”.
Convictions for anything do NOT prevent you being called however - once they are ‘spent’ after 5 years based on the rehabilitation of offenders act.
You cannot sit on the jury of a case where you know anyone else in the court, especially the defendant!
Any case that is likely to last longer than the 2 week draft period DOES have to seek employer’s permission for the additional release involved. I didn’t get that release myself when picked for a 6 week attempted murder trial, so ended up with a 4 day case, and the remaining week of sitting on my arse in the waiting room thumbing through the meagre reading material. Bring your own book to read!
To be called in summary then:
The system needs to know you exist as an 18+ year old UK resident with an NH number. College students count, illegal immigrants do not.
Then it’s just a case of pot luck the rest of the way!
I’ve just been called the once, and I believe that was back in 1994.
Simply tell the court that you know the defendant from somewhere.
Never been called in my 49 years. If I was to be called I’d write back thanking them for the opportunity to send to jail some travellers, anyone with curly hair or a suspicious suntan 'cos they’re obviously guilty. I’d also post them my rabbits head to demonstrate my commitment to the punishment process.
In Scotland where a jury consists of 15 jurors they require about 40 people to attend then 15 names are drawn at random from a gold fish bowl.You dont know anything about the case that you are hearing before entering the building.Potential jurors will be aked if they have any connection with the person being tried ,if you were to say yes you would then be told to leave.
6 times in 10 years, what a pain in the ■■■!
turned 18 in '08 with in 3mth i had a jury duty letter drop on the door step. in the end due to house move’s and job change’s i had it defferd to jan 2010. ended up at lincoln crown court set in the castle nice place. spent the full 10day’s there. was on a low wage at that point so thought the money was brilliant.
the case in question took 8day’s so was bloody long and tiring. but i was in the old court so the seat made economy class airline seat look comfy.
Looking at the below guide you could end up seriously out of pocket unless your there over 4 hours every day for 10 days or the trial lasts longer than 10 days…
gov.uk/jury-service/what-you-can-claim
Still I’m 31 years old and apart from my mum who did it before I was born I don’t know anyone else who’s been called up.
Dave
Muckaway:
Simply tell the court that you know the defendant from somewhere.
…but you don’t know who the defendent is until the indictment is read out! Then you’re there, and might as well continue. 
dpt2011:
Looking at the below guide you could end up seriously out of pocket unless your there over 4 hours every day for 10 days or the trial lasts longer than 10 days…gov.uk/jury-service/what-you-can-claim
Still I’m 31 years old and apart from my mum who did it before I was born I don’t know anyone else who’s been called up.
Dave
You WILL be there for 4 hours each day UNLESS you are daft enough to say “Hey bud, if I’ve got no case today, can I go now?” in which case they’ll say “OK - Until 09:30 tomorrow then…” … If your employer finds out you’ve left court early, you might get a call later at home as well. 
Congratulations - Youve just diddled yourself out of the extra payment for being there over 4 hours… Yes, THAT’S why they are apparently so keen to let you go thus!
Jurors who moan and groan a lot about “can’t spare the time” or “this is costing me a fortune” are those who end up backdooring their way to be ‘out of pocket’ you might say. 
Personally, I’d LOVE to be put on a city fraud case, since not only is it right up my street in terms of “interesting” but it would take months and months and leave me practically employed as court staff for what I’d be getting! Those rates on the gov website are PER DAY 
rather than per week as far as I am aware. I’d have a tax-free payment of £228.06 x 5 per week for a year plus - no sweat! They can have me counting out grains of sand from an hourglass for THAT kind of money I can assure you! 
(Very few employers will release their bod for more than the law-proscribed 10 day period - even on a zero pay with job held open basis. - Mine didn’t in 1994! 
)
Wages during jury service
Your employer doesn’t have to pay you but you can claim for loss of earnings from the court.
Your employer must fill out a Certificate of Loss of Earnings which you get with the letter confirming your jury service. You then send it as part of your claim for expenses once you’ve completed jury service.
This, is by far, the most important bit of paper out of all the other bumf you’ll receive regarding jury service.
Most employers are quite happy to brag just how much their bod is “going to lose” as a result of normally working stacks of hours across weekends and nights, and in some cases of you lot out there, nights out as well.
Your maximum week (60 hour week?) subtracting your minimum pay (which indeed may well be ZERO!) gives the court “what they’ve got to pay you upto the proscribed limits for loss of earnings”. If you are agency with an average pay packet of £500 per week, then you are going to be getting an easy grand here…
Just GET THAT LOSS OF EARNINGS LETTER FILLED OUT BEFORE DAY ONE - IT IS WORTH IT’S WEIGHT IN GOLD!
If you vote, you’re on the electoral roll = you get picked! tough ■■■ baby! 
GETTING:
I have also thought about that to .I am an o/d i could not afford to take time off i would be losing big time i would need to be paid at least £150 a day to cover costs
My dad got out of it many years ago (legally) by that method. Sent them in an itemised bill of what it would cost for him to be there and the wagon to be parked up per day. They didn’t want him after that.
You’re on the electoral roll regardless of you actually voting or not. Being over 18 and being in the same place long enough for the next census to be taken is what triggers any adult appearing on it… 
I didn’t vote in an election until 1997, and I was living at home with my parents until 1996. I got selected for jury service in 1994 regardless. 