My First Jury Duty

As previously mentioned, on the first of September I received my first Jury Duty Summons! I attended the Central Criminal Court starting on the 11th of October, and was assigned to the second case that morning.

It was my first time serving as a juror, so I hadn't been entirely sure what to expect. I volunteered to serve as the foreman of the jury, mostly due to a distinct lack of enthusiasm from the others. Thankfully, the case wasn't about murder, child abuse, or any other particularly distressing crimes. I was very thankful for that!

The judge advised us to expect the case to last about a week. The case started on Tuesday, and we began our deliberations late Thursday afternoon. We reached a verdict on all three charges the following day, after which we were officially discharged by the judge and thanked for our service.

As foreman I had a few additional responsibilities. I asked the judge about the CCTV footage provided by the prosecution having inconsistent timestamps (which meant we didn't understand the timeframe for the incidents in question), and I asked the judge a few questions about the charges and one legal question. On the Friday I had to fill in and sign the Issues Form, and when the court clerk read out a guilty verdict I was asked whether the verdict had been unanimous.