Our broken jury servitude system

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. I'm in England; I did jury duty a few years ago, and it's roughly as you describe

I can't remember exactly how much notice we got - a month, perhaps? - but they accept very few excuses for missing it, these days, and do say that if you say you can't do it this time, you have to specify times in the next year when you can. Employers have to give you time off, though don't have to pay you; you can claim for loss of earnings at a basic rate. If you're part of a really small business that would genuinely struggle without you there during the day, that would be a valid excuse for deferring. If it's work you can make up by doing it in the evening, it wouldn't be a valid excuse.

There are no preemptory challenges; if you know someone involved in the trial (or know about the case) you have to say so (they read out the names of the witnesses who may be called); on one case they had several extra of us at the start, because the accused and his victim were both in the police, and they asked if anyone had family or close friends in that force (it turned out no-one did, and I was one of the extra, so I wasn't on that jury).

Duty is for 2 weeks; I was on 2 trials during that, each lasting about 3 days.