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			Who is in a jury? Fitting jury service in with your work Are there exemptions? What to Expect Swearing In

In the UK the Crown Court deals with more serious offences that are unable to be dealt with by the lower levels of court. Trials are heard by a jury of 12 people and a judge.

The jury who cast their verdict are comprised of members of the public, you and I, randomly chosen people from the local community, aged 18 years and over.

There is some confusion as to who actually has to carry out jury service and whether it is possible to get out of it if you have prior commitments on the dates you are required. This article aims to set you straight on those confusing issues.

Who is in a jury?

Jury service is a public duty that members of the public are expected to perform and around 250,000 jurors are selected at random by computer every year.

Jurors are:

• Chosen from the electoral role for the surrounding area near the Crown Court.
• Over 18 years of age and under 70 years.
• Expected to attend the court for around two weeks OR for the duration of any trial they are selected for.
• Entitled to expenses and meal vouchers for attending court.

Fitting Jury Service in with your work

If you are summoned to carry out jury service you will receive notification from your local court of the dates you are required to attend.

You should inform your head of department/supervisor as soon as you receive such notification. Included in this notification will be Form 5223 (jurors loss of earnings certificate). You should take or send it to your work payroll Office for completion, prior to undertaking the jury service, if possible.

Your employer is bound to release you from work for jury service. If they refuse to do so, they’ll potentially be in contempt of court and liable to a fine or maybe even imprisonment. The bad news is that unless there’s anything in your contract or the staff handbook, which says otherwise, there’s no requirement that your employer must continue to pay you in your absence.

You will be entitled to some compensation from the court (it should be set out in the letter you’ve received) but this is set according to a standard formula and doesn’t take account of your actual financial loss.

If your employer sacks you, or threatens to sack you as a result of going on jury service, again, these are serious contempt of court issues and your employer could get into a lot of trouble.

It is extremely unlikely that you will be sacked but in the absolute worst-case scenario, you’d have every expectation of being compensated for your dismissal.

At the end of your jury service, administrators at the court will ask you for your expenses and subsistence claim. They will then issue you with a statement showing the court's reimbursement for loss of earnings, expenses and subsistence (i.e. how much they have paid you). You should take or send this statement to the Payroll Office so that an adjustment can be made to your salary.

Are their any exceptions?

Generally speaking, unless you are a lawyer, work in the prison service (or you’ve been in prison yourself) or you are a journalist, there’s not much you can do to get out of jury service.

You can certainly try to get yourself excused, say on the basis that you can’t leave your job, or have childcare needs, but there’s no obligation on the courts to allow this. They may end up simply deferring the inevitable.

What to expect

When you arrive to do your jury service, you are logged in and welcomed and then shown a video, which explains what happens in court in simple terms

At this stage you will be given no clue as to what case you will be working on. The accused may be on trail for financial swindling, blackmail, rape or murder. You will turn up on the first day of the trail and will be given a brief but you should be prepared for anything.

Once the case has started you are legally bound not to speak of proceedings with anyone outside of the courtroom. Some cases will be high profile and there will be press speculation, you must remain silent and not even talk to your close friends and family about the trail.

You should be emotionally prepared for jury service, some of the things you will hear about could be unpleasant and unsettling.

Even under these circumstances you have to remain impartial and have a clear head to make a fair judgement.

Swearing in

Sitting on a jury is a hugely responsible job, you should not take your duties lightly. You will be asked to swear on a holy book or make an oath that you will be impartial and honest in your judgement.

Each juror is sworn in separately. When your turn comes you may take an oath or you may affirm. You will have to read aloud the words of the oath or affirmation from a card, or repeat them after a court official. You will find the words of the oaths and the affirmation displayed in the waiting room.

If you take an oath you will hold a holy book while you speak the oath. Oath cards and holy books are available for several religions. If you want to take the oath on a holy book other than the New Testament, you should tell a court official as soon as you can. The official can then arrange to have that oath card and holy book ready for you. And please let a court official know if you need to make any special arrangements before you handle the holy book.

If you do not want to take an oath, you may ask to affirm. The words of the affirmation are very similar to an oath and carry equal meaning but you will not be asked to hold a holy book when you speak.

There is a distinct possibility that a lot of your jury service time will be spent hanging around waiting for the court to come to session. Previous cases can overrun, the accused may change his or her plea at the last minute - all of these things can delay proceedings so you should take a good book to read!

The timing of jury service can be inconvenient and proceedings possibly tedious but you should look at it as an honour, take your responsibility seriously, as your contribution will alter the lives of those closely linked with the case.

If you have any further queries about jury service, contact a member of your local Crown Court staff.