Have you ever done jury duty

Specialun

Watching runaway jury on sky

Have you ever served on a jury..if so when and for what...what was it like

I havnt btw

the groutch

The trick is to tell them you're prejudice against all races

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BUjE15OCcAAfKe4.jpg

Sierra 117

I have jury duty on Tuesday, as it happens.

michael999999

The most boring period you'll ever spend in your life.

A couple of plump overpaid barristers repeating ad nauseum the same thing over and over again very very slowly while ratcheting up the Euros!

Sierra 117

michael999999 wrote: »

A couple of plump overpaid barristers repeating ad nauseum the same thing over and over again very very slowly while ratcheting up the Euros!

While the jury can't even get travel expenses.

Muise...

Sierra 117 wrote: »

I have jury duty on Tuesday, as it happens.

Start a thread here and report it live!

I was only asked once, and I got out of it as I was a student in a different city at the time. But I wish I had been able to do it - long stints of boredom aside, I'd love to be encouraged to be analytical and judgey.

Greenmachine

Got called for jury duty panel. Had to go three days in total but wasn't picked for any of the cases.

Sierra 117

Are you now exempt from jury duty for a certain period, Greenmachine, or can you be called again since you weren't picked for a trial?

Wabbit Ears

I think Ive gotten letters 3 times. Into the bin they went.

thee glitz

Sierra 117 wrote: »

Are you now exempt from jury duty for a certain period, Greenmachine, or can you be called again since you weren't picked for a trial?

You can be called again even if you are picked. Exemptions are rare I think.

caustic 1

Yes, over a fight outside club at chipvan, such a fe cking waste of time and money, we all got lunch in local hotel, whatever we wanted, all because two fe cking eejits got drunk and had a barney.

Sierra 117

thee glitz wrote: »

You can be called again even if you are picked. Exemptions are rare I think.

I think there's a period of three years where you can't be called for jury duty. Not sure if that only applies to those who served on a trial though,

DEFTLEFTHAND

Exempt due to my job.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Arrah5hur wrote: »

what does 'sequestered' mean?

Very rare in Ireland, CCC deals with most of those cases. The jury are kept together in the same hotel for the duration of the trial. It does happen sometimes, especially in organised crime cases where jury members could be threatened or influenced by outside third parties.

liliq

Yep but got exempt the times I've been called.
Once was college exams, another time was shortly after having a baby and I doubt they wanted the baby on the jury , can't remember why I couldn't go the third time.
I wouldn't mind doing it, I think.

donutheadhomer

I spent 4 weeks in court many years ago and practically froze with boredom. I couldn’t tell you a thing about the case other than he looked pretty guilty anyway - the DPP dropped the case on some technicality then after 4 weeks. I lost my job too a week after coming back as the guy they got to replace me while on jury duty was far better than me.

deco nate

Sierra 117 wrote: »

I think there's a period of three years where you can't be called for jury duty. Not sure if that only applies to those who served on a trial though,

You are right, I did jury duty in 2012 and am out of the game till 2016 thank fcuk. Boring stuff and free dinners don't do it for me.

DazMarz

Aw, jury duty?! I'll see that Quimby kid HANG for this!!!

I wouldn't mind doing it, I do think it's a civic duty.

I'd hate to show up day after day and not get picked but I'd also hate to have to sift through evidence in the case of a violent crime or abuse. I think I'd find the responsibility of deciding on someones freedom and guilt very onerous. But, it's a duty to society so I don't think I'd try get out of it lightly.

Galadriel

thee glitz wrote: »

You can be called again even if you are picked. Exemptions are rare I think.

I served on a case for about 3 weeks, we where told at the end we didn't have to serve again for 10 years.

e.r

I did it once , bout 13 years ago .
Got the week off work with pay !

Case was a family from Mayo taking a bank to court over defamation of character .

Bank would not loan money to said family, and it made them a laughing stock to their friends etc...

The family lost rightly so, absolute waste of time for everyone involved.

deco nate

Galadriel wrote: »

I served on a case for about 3 weeks, we where told at the end we didn't have to serve again for 10 years.

10 years? That must have been a big case, drugs, rape murder? Most cases is 3 years.
You know, petty crime stuff.

Edit:3 weeks oh god, I'm glad mine was just 3 days long!

BNMC

Sat on the jury of a very sad and difficult case. It was big news in Ireland at the time. Got 3 weeks off work on full pay plus regular sex with a fellow juror in a pretty nice hotel.

Good times.

Galadriel

deco nate wrote: »

10 years? That must have been a big case, drugs, rape murder? Most cases is 3 years.
You know, petty crime stuff.

Edit:3 weeks oh god, I'm glad mine was just 3 days long!

It was the George Redmond corruption case, crikey it was in 2003 :eek:

Doom

I was asked to attend for selection, seen a couple of scumbags threatening some people to fcuk off home at the back of the court....lovely system

fungun

called twice, did it once.
Got a case of a scumbag who was clearly guilty in retrospect but as part of the case we had to go out as some evidence was deemed inadmissable. He was found not guilty, prosecution made an arse of it if you ask me, they left a lot of open items, enough to throw doubt on it.
I asked could we ask a clarifying question at some point but the answer was no. Prosecution should have made it clear though

Despite a jury of 12, all decisions were made by 3 people, everyone else followed so dont underestimate your influence on the result if you are semi-intelligent

aodhan2

I did it for three weeks on a case about a portakabin that one bloke said he moved for another lad who stole it from a school and he was the principal of this school. Not sure how much I can say. But it was a blatant lie.thet dragged up a lot of dirt. Both legal teams had a barrister sat in the roomand they took notes on the jury reaction. EventuAlly the guy admitted he lied ! We didn't even make a descision ! Waste of three weeks !

JupiterKid

I served on a jury back in 1998. I found it interesting and the free lunches were nice. I would be willing to serve again.

Was on a jury for a rape case a few years ago. Not nice what we had to see but that's society. Apart from that the whole process was interesting.

Exempt for eight years following it.

F1ngers

Greenmachine wrote: »

Got called for jury duty panel. Had to go three days in total but wasn't picked for any of the cases.

Similar, had to go five days.
Closest I got was three away from a murder trial.
Jury was picked before they got to me.

Uaru

I got called and picked to be on a case that ended up lasting months. I got out of it as I was going on holidays the next week.

If you don't want to get called get yourself removed from the voting register.

8mv

Called three times - picked for service three times. First trial was stopped shortly after starting on a technicality. Second one the guy changed his plea after day one. Third one we got to reach a verdict - very minor case though.

dudara

It's a constitutional duty as a citizen, even if painful. Haven't been called myself yet though.

I do know someone who was exempted for life (I think) due to serving on a particularly horrid rape case.

debabyjesus

I was called last year. Eventually was called for a case where some young fella ran over a gaurd in his car. The prosecution objected to me so I didnt even get to do it. They were trying to fill the jury with little old ladies and not young fellas like me. I think each side can object to a certain amount of jurors to try and fill the jury with their target demographic.

Foxhound38

I got it when I was about 19 - turned up for the panel intentionally scruffy, long hair, jeans etc looking just the part for a 19 year old unlikely to be sworn onto a jury without objection. Spent 3 days there if I remember correctly, until being called for a case. I was first called up to swear in - no objections to my annoyed surprise. Went to the jury room, picked a foreman, went back down to the court - judge ajourned the case to a later date for some reason so we all got exempted, a free lunch, and to go home.

That was 7 years ago and I haven't been called back since, thankfully!

ixoy

Got called in and, of the one hundred or so people there mine was the first name out. Hoped for an objection but no such luck and my job was never going to exempt me.

Lasted a couple of weeks and afterwards got a ten year exemption.

LordSutch

Jury duty?

I guess that's the same as Jury service, right?

dark crystal

Yeah, I got summoned 8 years ago and got chosen to serve. Case only lasted two days.

Got my second summons in the post only last week to appear next month. Hopefully I'll not be called this time!

sligojoek

I was called twice.

The first time was a guy accused of dangerous driving causing death. I was exempted because I know the victim's parents. It was adjourned and he pleaded guilty at a later hearing. He got 6 month suspended. Which I think was fair enough. It was a freak accident and he didn't set out that morning to kill anyone.

The second time was last February for a bloke that who stole a tractor. The jury was picked before my number was called. He was found guilty and got 3 years. Loads of previous so proper order. I saw him around town last week so he must only have done 9 or 10 months.

Tetra

I got called and picked but we got sent home after lunch because the guy changed his plea to guilty

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

urabell

LordSutch wrote: »

Jury duty?

I guess that's the same as Jury service, right?

Such knowledge, you must be a SC you esoteric b**tard

Sky King

Called into the court where we all had to stand around (not allowed sit in any of the many vacant seats for some reason) and look at those pompous c***s swaggering round the place like they weren't in a crappy court room in a small Irish town.

After an hour of this fking bullsh*t and a fu*king painfully long roll call where I noticed that a surprising number of people

a) didn't know their own names
b) shared the same names as others in the room

we were all sent home to come back in the following day. I was living nearby but some people had travelled for an hour to get there.

Same bullsh*t the following day and then we were just sent home without explanation.

Two days off work though, which was grand.

Hells Belle

I got picked for a jury a few years ago. The guy had allegedly stolen 50 euro worth of dirty oil from his workplace. The gardai then lost the barrel of oil so there was no evidence other than that of an elderly security guard and the arresting guard. We sat there baffled as to how this even made it to a court. The gardai who arrested him kept throwing his eyes to heaven when the man was testifying in full sight of the jury and tbh I think that swayed anyone who may have been leaning towards a guilty. The killer for me was that I had to travel 50 km each way for a full week at my own expense. We did get free lunch and plenty of biscuits so that was nice.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Chinasea

Couldn't believe the fuddy duddy practices still going on.

Wig wearing, gown wearing, "everyone rise" nonsense and then to top it all, producing bibles to swear on.

This is a dysfunctional cosy cartel of outrageously overpaid pompous, self regulated circle of contacts, who simply have a god given aptitude for memorizing large volumes of law rules and self adoration.

whupdedo

Got called once about a year ago,

I didn't bother going but I sent back a long letter on how I was borderline agoraphobic and couldn't handle dealing with open spaces such as courthouses and got panic attacks thinking about meeting new people, and how I had an irrational hatred of anyone in authority, i sent it off and never heard from anyone after that

RossyG

I was called for a kidnapping case. My heart froze; I had visions of young children being dragged into cars. But it was nowhere near as bad as that.

Two lads (mid-twenties) from the smoke had come down to visit relatives in the sticks and gone to a local night club. Somehow they'd ended up getting a good kicking in the car park from up to ten local youths. Police photos from the time were passed around of the one on trial; he was badly bruised about the face.

His friend was almost unconscious. The defendant had driven him home and, on the way back, spotted what he believed was one of the youths involved, a boy of eighteen. He'd bundled the boy into the car, driven him to the beach, threatened him with a hammer, and made the boy strip naked. Then the defendant had driven off.

The boy had had to run home in the nip. His mum found him climbing in through a window (it was summer then, but the case was just before Christmas). If she hadn't, I doubt the case would ever have happened. But she did and she called the police.

The judge said kidnapping was a serious charge that could result in up to twenty years inside. He also said he would only take a unanimous verdict.

I was the youngest juror by far: a baby-faced 25-year-old. I was also the only one who affirmed rather than swore on the Bible. Everyone else (bar one) was resolute; the defendant was guilty. But they were fair, too. They didn't try to pressurise me in any way when I said 'not guilty'. The other holdout lasted an hour and then, without explanation, changed his mind.

So me against the rest of them.

I told them the problem I had. I thought the kidnapping charge was disproportionate. It seemed to me that the young boy was part of the gang that had assaulted the outsiders. In return, he'd basically got a stag-night prank with menaces; unpleasant, but not as bad as being beaten senseless. So why was he the victim? I also felt that the defendant's reaction was merely an anger-fuelled moment of madness. It seemed harsh to punish him in a way that could ruin his life.

The others patiently explained that we were just there to confirm that the boy had been taken into a car against his will, threatened, and made to strip. It was then up to the judge regarding sentencing. And they were right of course, so I voted guilty.

I felt terrible as we returned to the box, but then the defendant's previous form was read out. His first charge was as an adolescent, when he'd punched a policewoman in the face. He'd continued along the path of thuggishness and criminality, even getting a jail sentence in his teens. And as all this came to light, a huge pressure lifted from me. He wasn't just an innocent getting caught up in circumstances, making a silly decision to act as a vigilante after an injustice; he was a career thug.

He got two and a half years, which was still a long sentence for the crime, but they took into account that he was already on probation for stealing something.

What surprised me was how badly presented the cases for prosecution and defence were. One prosecution witness - a young man - was called to state that he had heard a noise in his garden - dustbins rattling - and gone to investigate. He saw nothing, but later presumed it was the naked boy hiding on his way home. We jurors listened bemused; what had his speculation got to do with anything? The judge himself in his summing up remarked, perplexed, that the youth had been called for no apparent reason.

Also, the circumstances of the nightclub fight were never explored. Had the locals descended on the city boys for no reason? Had the city boys started on someone and then had that person's mates join in? No idea.

The defence barrister also snapped at the judge at one point, implying that he was leading the jury. Angered, the judge asked for the jury to retire for a few minutes, presumably so he could rebuke her.

So, to sum up - as a judge might say - it was an interesting four days, and I think the verdict was reached correctly, but I was left feeling vaguely dissatisfied by certain aspects, mostly the work of the two barristers (a haughty bearded man and a snooty young woman). The judge seemed OK, though; certainly not the blustering out-of-touch buffoon you hear of in the media.

diomed

Yes. Four Courts.
On the day the juries were picked I was sitting at the back. There was about 150 people there and a couple of juries to be picked. I was expecting to be strolling back down the quays in a few minutes, maybe do a bit of browsing in Easons, then head off home for a duvet day.
Third name called out was me. Then in the jury box the lawyers said something to me. It thought it was "objection". I got up to leave. It was "no objection". I was back in for the case the following day and was there for a week.

harry Bailey esq

thankfully im not eligible for jury duty.

Teyla Emmagan

Muise... wrote: »

Start a thread here and report it live!

I was only asked once, and I got out of it as I was a student in a different city at the time. But I wish I had been able to do it - long stints of boredom aside, I'd love to be encouraged to be analytical and judgey.

Me too, I'd really enjoy having the power of God over someone (kinda) and judging them for all their poor personal decisions and lifestyle choices.

I think I'd be the first to be weeded out during the assessment process to be honest