Is it right your made to do jury service?

Question

or get a £ 1000 fine

Answer 1

No, because jury's are pointless and work against justice.eg;

The arresting officer collects the evidence and if sufficient to show guilt prepares a file which is read by the custody sergeant, who decides the same, the file is read by the shift inspector, the osu chief inspector, the cps solicitor and put before the committal magistrates who all have to reach the same conclusion for it to proceed to crown court. The barrister then reviews the file and also has to come to the same conclusion.

Now for the funny bit,  the evidence having been reviewed by at least nine professionals, goes before a group of usually law ignorant people, to decide if he is guilty or not!!

If you just flipped a coin on his arrest you would achieve exactly the same thing, and save millions of pounds!!

Answer 2

yea y not.. payed time of work man!!!!

Answer 3

If you have your own business and are worried about loss of earnings you may be excused if the trial is a long one or if you have a holiday booked and can show proof.Its up to the judge.I was there when he excused a  few people.

Answer 4

It is a civic duty.  I have been called for jury service several times and was not at all happy about having to do it but it comes with the privilege of  being a citizen of the UK.

Answer 5

In order for our system of justice all the citizens must be prepared to do their part.

Your right to have a jury of your peers is limited if the peers do not appear for jury service.  Ask yourself if you would feel that it was not right if you were charged with a crime you didn't commit and wanted to have a jury trial and none of the jury showed up.  Then would you think it were wrong to fine them?

Our government asks little of us.  We must serve in the military if drafted, and must obey the law, other than that we receive the benefit of a free society, and are able to worship as we wish, attend school as we wish, and otherwise go about our lives with little government interference.  Unlike the people who live in say China, who may not attend the church of their choice, or even have as many children as they want, they are limited to one.  If someone in China protests at their job because they are discriminated against in favor of the boss's wife, they might end up being sent to "re-socialization" which amounts to prison, without the opportunity for a trial.  This is also true of those who decide to worship in a church which is not approved by the government.  

In order to keep those freedoms we must be willing to occasionally serve as jurors.

Answer 6

Yes quite right

Answer 7

If you want justice and to have a society with some form of protection against criminal eliments then you should be more than willing to pull your weight if your called up for jury service. Unless you have a reason that you cant do it.

So yeah i think it is right!

Answer 8

NOPE! I mean they should just pay a proper jury rather than invite the public, some of the cases can be really disturbing, they shouldnt put the public throught that!

Answer 9

you have to have a pretty good excuse to get out of it i.e be genuinely ill or bereaved.. or if you are to be at a financial loss as i was and got out of it because i would have lost more money than they paid  in expenses..

Answer 10

Absolutely... if jury service was volunteer only then juries would be packed with people who have ulterior motives for becoming jurors, such as people who have a chip on their shoulders and want all criminals fried or people who oppose the law who want all criminals freed.  I believe jury service should be mandatory for all citizens.

Answer 11

In America, we consider it an honor to be able to serve jury duty.  We have a representative form of government and are fully involved in the election of those representatives.  By the same token, we are involved in our government through jury duty.

Answer 12

No, not at all.  When I was asked to do jury service (well, they don't actually ASK you, they tell you) I wrote back to say that I am not willing to make judgements on anyone, and they wrote back to say I was excused.  Judge not, lest ye be judged ...

Answer 13

Apparently that's something we're all obliged to do if we're asked to. But I knew someone who was called to do jury service and was then refused during the preliminary interviews/questions because it looked liked she would be too biased! I guess they ask you questions to find out if you're a man hater/racist/things like that, cos you need to be impartial if you're on a jury.

About the fine; they probably decided to threaten people with the fine, cos if jury service was optional, either most people wouldn't do it, and the ones that would wouldn't be what they're looking for to put on a jury. Who knows? I just hoped I never have to go!

Answer 14

If you're over 18 and under 70, you could be summoned for Jury service.  There are various reasons why you might be excused but you still have to turn up and ask to be excused.  The fine for not showing up used to be £400, but they may have increased it.

Answer 15

yes, how else could they randomly pick people to serve on a jury, and if loads of people decided they didn't want to do it, it would be a long process to try and find people who did, leaving guilty or innocent people in custody longer than necessary, so i think it is a good way of selecting a mixed set of people of all ages and back grounds so therefore a fair system