Jury Service
On 17th August I started Jury Service. I had arranged for Mike to walk Suki in the mornings and for Lee and Emma to walk her in the afternoons - and to have her all day on the Thursdays when Mike was at work. This cost in the region of #170 which is of course not reimbursed! I had to turn up at 9.15 on the first day - and sit through a mind blowing induction talk from a jumped up little civil servant jury officer who clearly relished the sound of his own voice. Never using five words when twenty five would do, he proceeded to go through every detail of the claims procedure etc. It took 45 minutes and then we had to watch a video. Finally we got to be left alone and I was able to make a lot of progress on another year of Middlesex Members before the battery in the laptop got low and I packed it all away and started to read my book. This was quite good timing as at this point the jury officer called out the names of the first jury - and my name was called out. We were in Court 13 which was as far away as it was possible to get from the jury assembly room. We sat in the jury room for a while waiting to be called to be sworn in - but were then sent back for the lunch break and called again at 2. This time we were sworn in - my name being the first to be called this time which at least meant I had a seat at the end. We spent a tedious time listening to the evidence in an assault case arising from a dispute between neighbours which lasted until Wednesday afternoon. The barristers gave us their closing arguments and then we went home at 2.30 because the judge had something else to do. On Thursday morning the judge did his summing up and then we started deliberating. We found one of them guilty quite quickly, but could not agree on the other one at all. At 4.30 we went home. We had Friday off because the judge was not sitting - which was a nice surprise - and turned up again on the Monday to continue deliberating. By 2 pm we had still not agreed, although the majority had completely swung the other way, and we sent a note to the judge admitting stalemate. He then discharged us, and when we got back to the assembly room we were told we could go home and not come back as we would not be needed any more. This was a wonderful surprise - and I immediately started planning to go down to Devon the next day.
I went in by bus the first day, walking up to the Chiswick High Road and catching the H91 bus to Ridgeway Road and then walking down to the court. This took about an hour each way, and the bus was extremely crowded in the morning. However I discovered there was ample room in the car park, which was free, and so I drove the rest of the time - which only took 20 mins each way as the traffic was light because lots of people are away. I took a packed lunch and a flask of coffee each day - which was a godsend once we had started deliberating as we were not allowed out of the room. The jury baliff brought up lunch - but it was a fiasco with complicated ordering arrangements and the eventual delivery having little in common with what had been ordered. I just had to write off the 80p I had paid for a kit kat which never arrived.
I went in by bus the first day, walking up to the Chiswick High Road and catching the H91 bus to Ridgeway Road and then walking down to the court. This took about an hour each way, and the bus was extremely crowded in the morning. However I discovered there was ample room in the car park, which was free, and so I drove the rest of the time - which only took 20 mins each way as the traffic was light because lots of people are away. I took a packed lunch and a flask of coffee each day - which was a godsend once we had started deliberating as we were not allowed out of the room. The jury baliff brought up lunch - but it was a fiasco with complicated ordering arrangements and the eventual delivery having little in common with what had been ordered. I just had to write off the 80p I had paid for a kit kat which never arrived.
