It’s been a different, and interesting, couple of weeks. The reason for that is that I’ve been on jury service, but it has meant that there has had to be a change in routine for James.
Whilst it has been interesting and a change from the usual routine it’s been tiring too. I don’t consider myself to have ever been what you would call a ‘morning’ person. Even with all the years caring for James with broken nights and early mornings I never found that easy. People would say to me that “you must have got used to it” but I never did. I did it because in all honesty it was necessary. This last week or so has meant a lot of early mornings and, as I don’t sleep well at the best of times, I’ve not enjoyed that part of it. I have been arriving very early at the court but I always like to be organised and early, or at least on time, and whilst an extra 10 minutes in bed is very tempting, I don’t like rushing or stressing about being late. My husband is the opposite to me and likes to be up early but then he is nodding on the sofa when I’m wide awake at night, but somehow between us we made a good tag team when managing James’ often erratic sleeping pattern.
Jury Service
It’s not the first time I’ve been called for jury service. It’s funny how some people are called more often than others and yet you are selected completely at random from the electoral register. Most of my family have actually never been called.
To be eligible for jury service you must be between 18 years and 76 years of age. There are a few circumstances in which you will not be eligible and these are laid out in the information that is sent to you with your jurors’ summons. You do receive a great deal of useful information with your summons, during the weeks leading up to your service and whilst at court. Jury service is regarded as one of the most important civic duties that you can be asked to perform as few decisions made by members of the public have such an impact upon society as a jury’s verdict.
There are, as you might imagine, a huge number of people involved in the criminal justice system and from just what I’ve seen these last two weeks it takes a great deal of organisation to keep it running smoothly. When you are selected for a jury you are assigned a court usher. As a juror you can never quite anticipate how your day will be, it often doesn’t go as you may be expecting as situations can change very quickly but your usher guides you through the process keeping you informed of what’s happening. They answer any questions you may have, tell you where you need to be and when, and generally look after you all. We had a lovely usher.
In Court
On the first day I was called upon to sit on a trial that was expected to take five days. On Wednesday, shortly before lunchtime we were unexpectedly adjourned and it was looking very much like the trial may run into a second week. However, Thursday brought about another unexpected turn of events meaning that by Friday morning the Judge and Barristers were summing up, which did take quite some time. Then we were in deliberation for our verdicts. Two hours later we had reached unanimous verdicts on 4 indictments which concluded the trial.
The second week I was due to attend we were actually given the Monday off. Other jurors who were sitting on other trials were in attendance but apparently Tuesday of the second week there were several new trials due to begin and so we were asked to attend then. It was a long morning with a lot of waiting around. Two new juries were called but they didn’t include me. For reasons I am unaware of another trial fell through, and then some jurors were allowed to go home with some being instructed to ring the Jury Officer later that day to see if they were required to attend the following day. Again this didn’t apply to me. Then a jury, including myself, was called for Court 3 but told we wouldn’t be required until at least after lunch which tended to be between 1-2pm. During that time jurors from another court who had begun a 10 day trial the previous week returned to the jurors assembly room. It seemed that their trial had also collapsed and so they were dismissed and no longer needed. After lunch we waited…..and waited! It was looking very much like we weren’t going to get into court until the following day when eventually the Jury Officer came and told us there had been a change of plea so the court would not be sitting on that trial. At which point we were all discharged and told we would not be required to attend for the remainder of the week. My duty was done.
Missing James
Unfortunately, this has impacted on my time with James. The usual routine is that James is picked up from his day service by his grandparents on Tuesdays and they bring him to my house. After staying to see him for a couple of hours they leave, James has his tea and later we take him home. Being in court it was impossible to say what time I would get away so we made alternative arrangements. Instead my mum and dad took James to their house. This has happened before if I’ve been unwell or on holiday and he loves to go there. They have a big stash of puzzles and books to occupy him and he loves them both and enjoys spending time with them. The plan had been that if I was dismissed early I would go round to see him (my youngest son was at my house doing an online timed assessment for Uni so having James and Grandad banging out ‘Happy and You Know It’ at my house was not going to be an option). Anyway, as it happened on both Tuesdays I was in court by the time I was dismissed and was on my way home James would have been eating his tea. I didn’t want to disrupt him so after a quick phone call to my dad to check all was well with James we concluded that it was better I leave them to it. I had arranged for James’ home staff to pick him up if I didn’t make it and they duly did this. James said his goodbyes and left happily on both occasions.
James did of course ask for me but then he always does but especially on the days he expects to see me. I had wondered what my mum and dad could tell James to explain my absence. I decided what he may understand was for them to say ‘mum was at work.’ I don’t know what that really means to him but he used to accept it when I said his dad was at work. Anyway, he was a real trooper and we had a lovely day when I did get to see him on Saturday in between my two weeks at court. At the time of writing this I am yet to see him this coming weekend but am looking forward to seeing him.
These relatively minor changes to James’ routine he can cope with as in this instance he went to visit with Grandma and Grandad and so he didn’t miss me too much. If, however, he had been picked up from his day service and gone straight to his home that may have been a different matter as that most definitely is not what would normally happen on a Tuesday. As yet we’ve always managed to make alternative plans if I’ve not been able to be around. If I’ve been away on a weekend and not seen him as we normally would then we’ve been able to arrange for his Auntie Joan to visit with him instead and this has worked well.
In terms of court, aside from the early mornings and having to get into town each day, I enjoyed it. The first week was good being able to see a trial in its entirety and to its conclusion. For me it’s been an opportunity to meet lots of different people and it’s funny how quickly you gel as a group when you are all thrown into a situation you are unfamiliar with. The experience the 12 of us shared in my first week does bond you and even after our trial finished we spent much of the remainder of our time together. As you are not permitted to discuss the details of your trial outside of the jury deliberation room we spent our time chatting, laughing and sharing stories from our own day to day experiences, and actually it was a pleasurable experience.
