called for jury duty

wiggy123

Replied back to them, ok! if you do not attend then afterwards.. what can happen! tia

colmdel

A judge will issue a warrant for you to be brought before him/her if you don't attend. Its best to just go, you might be sent home if your not chosen to sit on a jury on the day

GBX

You may not get selected. Its best to turn up. Even if selected to be a juror on the day, you can tell them you cannot sit on the particular case and away you go.

wiggy123

thanks for advise folks

oLoonatic

Turn up in a tracksuit and act like a yob. the solicitors will have you dismissed.

Mod
LD Mods do not agree with this advice

Boxcar_Willie

Mate in work was called for jury service.
Told boss that he had to go and that he has to be paid.
Boss said if your not here you don't get paid.
Mate went to court , told the judge that he couldn't serve and explained what his boss had said.
Judge issues a bench warrant for the boss , two Gardai pick him up and take him to court and judge marks his card.
Highlight of the day was the boss leaving court and being chased down the street by 3 press photographers.

Take your jury summons seriously !!

4ensic15

oLoonatic wrote: »

Turn up in a tracksuit and act like a yob. the solicitors will have you dismissed.

Mod
LD Mods do not agree with this advice

It is more likely that if you turn up in a suit and look respectable the solicitors for the defendant will have you dismissed.

2Mad2BeMad

Boxcar_Willie wrote: »

Mate in work was called for jury service.
Told boss that he had to go and that he has to be paid.
Boss said if your not here you don't get paid.
Mate went to court , told the judge that he couldn't serve and explained what his boss had said.
Judge issues a bench warrant for the boss , two Gardai pick him up and take him to court and judge marks his card.
Highlight of the day was the boss leaving court and being chased down the street by 3 press photographers.

Take your jury summons seriously !!

Quick way of getting fired also..
They won't fire you straight away but they will find reasons to fire you not too long after. Then you take the boss to court over unfair dismissal and maybe win if you have a reasonable judge and get paid a small lump some after about 6months if your lucky. Basically you give urself a load of hassle for involving your boss.
Quickest way out is just tell them you know someone in the case or there a friend of a friend

El Tarangu

Peregrinus

oLoonatic wrote: »

Turn up in a tracksuit and act like a yob. the solicitors will have you dismissed.

Lord bless your innocence! Whatever gave you that idea?

Here in the real world, the prosecution very rarely objects to jurors, and certainly not the the basis of their appearance. It's only the defence that does that (and, in Ireland, not even that happens very much). So if you're hoping to to be objected to, try to look like someone that the defence wouldn't want on a jury. Look angry. Look judgmental. Look like you blame the parents. Appeal to stereotypes - if a man, wear a conservative suit, not the latest style. Also, if balding, try to style your hair into a combover even if that is not your usual preference. If a lady, purse your lips a lot and carry a severe-looking handbag; try to channel Margaret Thatcher on a bad day.

c.p.w.g.w

Get a cert from your doctor. Saying your unable due to stress. It's worked a colleague of mine on two occasions.

893bet

Boxcar_Willie wrote: »

Mate in work was called for jury service.
Told boss that he had to go and that he has to be paid.
Boss said if your not here you don't get paid.
Mate went to court , told the judge that he couldn't serve and explained what his boss had said.
Judge issues a bench warrant for the boss , two Gardai pick him up and take him to court and judge marks his card.
Highlight of the day was the boss leaving court and being chased down the street by 3 press photographers.

Take your jury summons seriously !!

Sounds like bull****.

Dakotabigone

A friend of mine got out of it by talking to himself and constantly mentioning Shiela.

endacl

Jaysus. Just do it.

:rolleyes:

Keatsian

Peregrinus wrote: »

Here in the real world, the prosecution very rarely objects to jurors, and certainly not the the basis of their appearance. It's only the defence that does that (and, in Ireland, not even that happens very much).

I was on a selection panel in a district court and there were objections to many people called to the juries (from both defense and prosecution iirc). I couldn't see any pattern to the objections, or anything objectionable about the people singled out. The judge even commented on it, assuring everyone there was nothing behind it, and if you were objected to, to just go back to the panel.

blueberrypie

just turn up and see what happens.
Isn't it a break from the norm.

AndrewJRenko

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

Get a cert from your doctor. Saying your unable due to stress. It's worked a colleague of mine on two occasions.

What doctor would do that?

wiggy123

went to it-called up for jury service in one case-then defendants solicitor objected.. next case--not picked.. so all ok

cml387

I can only speak from my experience. I looked suitably nondescript and was picked.
Another man was dressed impeccably with lovely suit, even had a briefcase as I recall.
He barely got standing up before he was turned down by the defence barrister (as I subsequently discovered).

One possible "out" is that if you claim to be unable to read/write. That may be a bit demeaning to you if you claim that in front of 200 people, especially if you were seen reading the Indo outside previously.

Claiming some prior knowledge of the case can also work, it being a small country that can be difficult to disprove.

My advice is just do it. It's certainly one of life's experiences.

I finished up being elected foreman, one certainly gets a frisson when the judge addresses you personally ("MrCML, I'm afraid we have to send you out again").

Unfortunately I never got to proclaim guilt or innocence (I had an image of all the press running outside to report my verdict to a waiting world) because the defendant threw in the towel on the second day.

The most vivid impression I had was one of theatre, barrister, gardai, defendant all were well versed in their lines and only we poor civilians were watching it for the first time.

Oh yes, and free dinner.

ARNOLD J RIMMER

Ive never been called for jury duty. Where do they get your name from to get selected to serve?

Johnny Red Cab

ARNOLD J RIMMER wrote: »

Ive never been called for jury duty. Where do they get your name from to get selected to serve?

Voters list.

judeboy101

I've always wondered if its a jury of your peers and your from Kerry and go on a murder rampage why are you tried in the ccj on front of dubs?

Darkglasses

Am I the only one dying to do it sometime

turdball

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

What doctor would do that?

Any to be honest if you have crippling social anxiety. New situations make it 10 times worse and especially been put on the spot if your name comes out.

cml387

Darkglasses wrote: »

Am I the only one dying to do it sometime

It was the free dinner that sold it, wasn't it.

Look, I take the view that in a democracy you have a lot of rights. You also have some responsibilities as well, and jury duty is one.

endainoz

I was called up once, but as it turns out the case would go minimum for three days and on the morning of the third day I was due to fly out on holidays.

So as it turned out I was selected for the main jury for the case. I had the boarding pass for the flight printed out in my hand ready to show it to the judge but he didn't even look at it and dismissed me. Was a case about an arson attack on a house, I got to see the two defendants and as it turned out they were found innocent in the end.

EmptyTree

I don't know a lot about it, but I really don't get why people are so keen to avoid it.

Spanish Eyes

I served twice, never thought that would happen!

Then last year got another summons. But I have developed hearing difficulties since, and was a bit concerned about being able to hear the evidence correctly. Got a note from the doc who absolutely agreed with me. Excused, no problem.

It was not because I didn't want to serve, I just felt I couldn't do the job justice.

gozunda

Turned up, picked for jury duty out of several hundred there. Neither defence nor plaintiff legal team objected. Sat through several days of pleadings etc. Learned a lot and how the law works. On balance positive experience imo.

braidman

Up north we only get stale sandwiches for lunch

Keatsian

Keatsian wrote: »

I was on a selection panel in a district court and there were objections to many people called to the juries (from both defense and prosecution iirc). I couldn't see any pattern to the objections, or anything objectionable about the people singled out. The judge even commented on it, assuring everyone there was nothing behind it, and if you were objected to, to just go back to the panel.

It's a very slow process for all- you would think technology could add value speeding it up in some way but then of course, it wouldn't be "seen" to be above board, but the point being, it's not right now either.

I've done it. It's our civic duty.

I've seen a lot of money spent through the years on making a ridiculous marketing campaign around "not paying your TV licence" as some sort of socially unacceptable faux-pas- while I pay my TV licence every year, that marketing campaign is just embarrassing.


Where it could have been spent is on debugging the whole "I got out of jury duty" bravado or "too stupid to get out of jury duty" jokes- that would have been money better spent IMHO.

Flibble

I served a few years ago, people were being dismissed for reasons as simple as irregular public bus times & needing to travel too far or having difficulty finding childminders. There was a significant amount of dismissals, easily 1:1.5 ratio.

I served 5 days total on a jury for a guy who had beaten someone up and set a delivery van on fire. It was slow, tedious, interesting 20% of the time, and the food was absolute muck. I'm glad I did it though, was good to see how courts work.

I was called again last month for a jury pool next week but had a valid reason to excuse myself so I sent them back the little slip + proof, and they wrote back to let me off the hook. I probably would have done it again though if I could!

The high horse brigade

Got called and then selected. I think being white Irish and refusing to take the oath and asking for a declaration was a reason I was never going to be refused by the defence. I then went on to pull the short straw to become foreperson. It was an experience to say the least, I quite enjoyed it looking back. After 2 days the case was thrown out. The judge instructed us we must find the defendant not guilty as there was CCTV evidence in the defences favour that was somehow made disappear by the prison staff (the incident happened in prison).

AndrewJRenko

turdball wrote: »

Any to be honest if you have crippling social anxiety. New situations make it 10 times worse and especially been put on the spot if your name comes out.

I don't think the context of the suggestion above about getting the doctor's cert was crippling social anxiety.

AndrewJRenko

Johnny Red Cab wrote: »

Voters list.

It's mad that you get 'punished' for registering to vote like this. Surely they should be able to come up with a broader list, by combining Revenue and Social Welfare records?

tuxy

If you were called for jury duty and made it clear that you know what jury nullification is.
Would this make it more or less likely that you would actually be picked for the case?

For example the Padraig Nally case is probably the most well known case where the jury knew about jury nullification but I doubt they expressed this before being picked.

2016

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

It's mad that you get 'punished' for registering to vote like this. Surely they should be able to come up with a broader list, by combining Revenue and Social Welfare records?

Isn't it also true that the TV Licence inspectors also use the voters list?

nuac

Mod
Could we get back to being called as a juror?. Nullification is a separate issue.

El Tarangu

A friend of mine was called for jury duty for a murder case. One of potential jurors, a young fella, told the judge that he didn't think he could do it, as his mam and dad were on holidays and he needed to walk the dog(!)

The judge let him off anyway.

Turns out that the young lad had the right idea, as my friend got selected, and the murder trial ended up the longest in the history of the state, and he was stuck in court for weeks and weeks...

Collie D

Called twice.

First time I was selected for a trial (Tiger kidnapping) where I kind of knew the defendant (same area, I knew his extended family very well and he’d tried to assault my brother a few years before). I told the judge and he asked me if I thought it would affect my impartiality and I replied yes. That was me exempt. I thought the guy was an absolute scumbag but he’s still entitled to a fair trial. He was convicted and has since gone on to shoot at a Guard amongst other serious crimes.

Second time clashed with a holiday. Sent in copies of flight and hotel bookings and got a letter back to say I was exempt.

It is something I’d possibly be interested in and I do believe it’s a responsibility but just a clash of circumstances at the time. Probably unusual to get a third call.

supremenovice

I got summonsed in March. I go on holidays four days after the summons date. Will that get me dismissed? Im going to send in a copy of travel documents to them anyway. I dont see how I could sit on a jury and case be done in three days?

wiggy123

see how long case will last-judge will normally state the time frame.. decide then, if your selected for it-state your going on hols like

cudsy1

OK, in cork city anyways, you either get called for circuit (2 week commitment, by all accounds a total doss, not needed after 11am til next day, sitting around watching TV etc.) or central (1 possibly lenghty and horrible massive court case, or not needed beyond one or two days). which you are called for wasnt specified on my summons, you only find out on the day.

circuit starts 9:30 I think. They have a room of about 150 people that can be selected from for the cases that are on that day. The courtroom comes up on screen and they select a jury for that case randomly, then you go in and the solicitors decide if they want you or not... if not you just go back to be in selection for next case. This goes on until about 11 then you are free to go until the next day.

central is 10-4 maybe?

Employer just gets a letter at the end saying you were there every day once you show up in the morning and do the selection thing... once you don't get selected it's the job as you are just in for an hour or two and then off for the day. there were ppl who came for a few days and then told them they coudn't anymore and that was ok too. but you can't go some days and not others if that makes sense. you have to be there every day if you're agreeing to go.

cork city only call 16-20 panels total a year to cover both circuit and central.seems few to me.

Gazza62

Never done it, look it's very simple if you don't want to do this BS you should get a note from your doctor it worked for me first time round i'm excused indefinitely.

reni10

Anyone know how this is all working now with Covid restrictions?

Got called to serve jury duty towards end of month but now with level 3 restrictions how do they keep to maximum numbers etc?

Treppen

Got called twice but I'm a teacher (students for exams, no subs available etc.)
Both times the missus got summoned a few weeks later.

charlietheminxx

reni10 wrote: »

Anyone know how this is all working now with Covid restrictions?

Got called to serve jury duty towards end of month but now with level 3 restrictions how do they keep to maximum numbers etc?

I'd like to know this too. I was expecting it to get cancelled if we went above level 3, but doesn't look like that's the case. It's very hard to know what to expect against the backdrop of Covid.

AndrewJRenko

charlietheminxx wrote: »

I'd like to know this too. I was expecting it to get cancelled if we went above level 3, but doesn't look like that's the case. It's very hard to know what to expect against the backdrop of Covid.

Some details in this article
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/galway-woman-makes-history-as-first-deaf-person-to-deliberate-on-irish-jury-1.4370644

reni10

So according to that article jurors are spread across the court room but what about in the jury room?

Anyway no sign of it being cancelled so I will find out soon!

SweetCaliber

I was on jury duty last week, they used an empty court room for the jury to deliberate and the jury room also, same for when we were waiting to be picked we were spread out over the empty courtroom and jury room also.

For the jury stand in my courthouse it seated 6 where as the other 6 sat on the benches in the court room.

yaboya1

So would jury duty qualify as 'essential '?
Or will all juries in the four courts/central criminal courts be made up of Dublin residents for the time being?