Jury Duty

[silver]

In this our current system, one should feel honoured just to be eligable to serve,.... even more so to be picked to serve on the jury and be able to judge ones peer/s in the utmost of honesty and with a sinserity that would do justice proud in the eyes of others be the verdict guilty or not. :|

 

[BoydWilliam]

If you don't want to participate in Jury Duty, tell them you are good friends with many police officers and have been for a number of years.
Explain to them that regardless what evidence were to be put before you in a trial, you will probably find the accused guilty.
Explain to them that you are likely to go into a court case of the mindset guilty until proven innocent due to your police friends influence over you for such a long time.
You wont be selected for Jury duty in a million years.

 

[KarlS]

I had served on jury once. The trial lasted three weeks. It was very sobering and unpleasant experience. Whole trial was lot of argument about nothing. Not a shred of evidence was presented about involvement of the accused person. The judge fell asleep few times. Police detective presented evidence of his investigation in couple sentences that went something i like this. On (date and the time and place) I spoke to accused and ask him did you do this and that. He replied, how could I, I was not even there. Therefore I arrested him and charged him with blaba. Really briliant piece of police work. Rest of the trial was mostly taken by arguments about nothing.
When we retired to consider verdict , one of the jurors (union official ) appointed himself as jury Forman. He gave as long lecture about what is good and what is bad in our society. I thought, what in bloody hell is going on.
Then he gave us pieces of paper and told us to write our verdict on it. I thought we be finished in short time as there was not slightest bit of evidence that the accused done it.
To my surprise there was nine guilty and three not guilty verdicts. Dissenting was a well dress, well spoken gentleman in his fifties, old lady and scruffy looking me only the new Australian on the jury.
The arguments dragged on for few days and our plea to judge that we cannot reach the verdict was rejected by the judge and we were told to keep trying. Eventually we agreed to let each person to explain their reasons for their decesion without interruption from others.
This is in nutshell reasons for guilty decisions.
He is guilty because he could be guilty. ( university education, BA )
He is guilty because he looks guilty. (Three female jurors )
He is guilty because society must not accept such things to happen (Union guy)
He is guilty because two witness swear on the Bible that they are telling truth ( young Christian guy)
He is guilty because majority says guilty (two women and one guy)
The three of no guilty camp basically argue same. We don't know if he done it or not, but there is not a smallest bit of evidence to prove his guilt and that makes it impossible to say beyon reasonable doubt that he is guilty and send him in jail for ten or more years.
And after that same arguments started a new. Arguments about religion, social issues, the things that had nothing to do with this case. Eventually I got sick and tired of all of it and told them that I will not discus it any more and stay with my not guilty decision. And that I don't care if we have to stay here for an other week, month or year.
Well, surprise surprise, whitin two hours everyone agree on not guilty verdict.
Whole experience left me in serious doubt about the police and justice system. And about my fellow citizens.
One thing I learn that if I ever have to face trial I would alway go for trial by judge.
Karl
.

 

[Goldpick]

Are you for real mate? My comments are not off-topic, nor of ANY political nature. On the premise of the original question, well it seems Gary O is the only one so far who would be able to reply. It would seem to me that you may have a vested interest in steering the conversation regarding jury duty in only a positive light. If highlighting disparity and unfairness is deemed political speech and therefore to be silenced, then there is a diminishing line here between open discussion and selective gagging.
In my first post here I made reference to the importance of jury duty within the concept of fairness and judgement by ones peers, as per the law, and after reading the following posts I merely highlighted how easily justice is skewed.
I have NEVER ONCE here on ANY post said Labor-bla-bla-bla, or Liberal bla-bla-bla, or Malcolm Turncoat bla-bla-bla.
You are drawing a very long bow calling anything I have said politically motivated.
You may not have noticed the very positive and very informative posts I have made within these pages, nor the general agreeance, despite some polarity, with my views.
A robust discussion that avoids personal attacks is essential in avoiding uninformed or disinformed opinions. If offence is taken because of truth, then it is not the time to shoot the messenger.

Tim, I am responding directly to reports made to the moderators on the relevance of your initial post to the topic at hand, not trying to personally gag anybody, and hence no posts were deleted either. Whilst I agree with your last statement in that post on the importance of jury duty, what was written before that hardly related to actual jury duty, just personal views on the "system". If you feel that passionate on whether the legal system is fair or not, maybe a new topic on the subject would be more appropriate.

I did try to contact you before posting, but your PM service has been disabled??

 

[Guest]

Very good assessment of the system Karl. Too many ulterior motives and all underpinned by the grubby connivings of the elephant in the room- politics. You are very right to have serious doubts-as we should all. It is the cause of all things bad and the answer to nothing.

 

[Tathradj]

Check mate. LOL
Tim, Please slow down on the politics mate.
There has been a few complaints from members about it.
True, what you are saying and your comments are respected but, Like our legal
system, We do have rules in here.
All Good.?

 

[Guest]

That's funny-I got a PM just yesterday.
How about Karls opinion? Does his personal opinion also warrant censorship? Would his personal views also warrant a separate topic? If it makes you any happier you can cancel my membership and delete all my posts.
Politics raises its' ugly head again.
I'll be having a little break from all this politics now........

 

[silver]

Lets just start again tomorrow like it was yesterday,.. then all is good as we will all be off to a good start.
every day is a new and fresh start for us all,.... we just need to make the best of it and dance the dance anew with hindsight as foresight. (Quote attributed to Silver).

 

[MDH]

I just had jury service km last week! I have stood as a key witness in a trial and from my experience the worst part of our judicial system is defence lawyers... They are making their money defending criminals and take pride in winning cases that they know the person/s they are defending are guilty. They tear apart your statement and ask questions in a manipulating and confusing manner purely to try and trip you up in order to dismiss your evidence and anything you've said as inadmissible, therefore the jury cannot base any verdict on any part of your statement or what you've said. To me that is the most dishonest part of our judicial system. I was looking forward in a way to see the other side, however when I arrived I found out we were going to serve a civil matter and just prior to entering the court room the parties involved decided to settle out of court... Ahh well, i got a days pay for a coffee and a video in the jurors pool room!!!

 

[nicko61]

Hey Tim while i agree with lots of your posts here is the facts as per NSW court system for jurors.
if trial is only for ten days everyone gets around $106 a day till day 11, then you get the extra if employed, now the unemployed do ok as they dont get $106 a day on the dole or pension.
Daily rate for jury service allowances

Days of trial Daily rate Employment status
Days 1 to 10

$106.30 a day

All jurors

Days 11 to trial end

$239.20 a day
Jurors who are employed

N/A
$106.30 a day

Jurors who are not employed
If you attend for half a day on the first day, no allowance is payable.

All public servants are paid by their agencies whilst they are completing jury service and are not entitled to a jury payment.

As a juror you are also paid a travel allowance, calculated on the distance from your postcode to the courthouse at 30.7 cents per kilometre.

Jury allowance payment details

Jury allowance payments are made weekly by electronic funds transfers to your nominated bank account. Please log onto juror.nsw.gov.au and enter your bank account details prior to your court attendance.

If you have not received a payment, or you have any questions about payment, you should advise the court officer or sheriff's staff attending to your jury panel.

As payments are processed mid-week it may appear that you are missing one or more day's payment in your first EFT payment. You will find that these days will be paid, in the following weeks' payment.

If you ask to be excused, no allowance is payable regardless of the time you are excused, as you are not making yourself available for jury service.

 

[Mickkat12]

I wouldn't do jury duty if you paid me ...

 

[Redfin]

They tear apart your statement and ask questions in a manipulating and confusing manner purely to try and trip you up in order to dismiss your evidence and anything you've said as inadmissible, therefore the jury cannot base any verdict on any part of your statement or what you've said.

And that is why the prosecution has the right to a re examination, to clear up any ambiguities.

 

[GaryO]

Just went to Jury duty , explained my issues with such a long trial and i was excused. In at 9am out by 9.07 am

 

[GaryO]

I was happy to do a shorter one but the next available was 14 weeks , so i guess ill get another call up soon when something around the 2 week range is available
It would be interesting if not somewhat enjoyable to do if it wasnt detrimental to my employment and career .

 

[GaryO]

Im up again for next month , this is the fourth time. Its a 3 week trial so id say im in for this one if i get picked as ive run out of good excuses .

 

[goldengoose]

Optional duty no just told to do it

I wasted 3 days sitting in the room waiting and it cost a heap in parking fees. Not to be called or selected. This was a few yrs ago.
From that time on I do not and will not receive the letters any more.

On topic you cannot find GOLD being in a jury

 

[Ridge Runner]

Im up again for next month , this is the fourth time. Its a 3 week trial so id say im in for this one if i get picked as ive run out of good excuses .

They do get a bit emotional when you dig ya heals in.

John.

 

[Heatho]

Having a brain injury gets me out of having to do so much annoying stuff. Ahhhhhh.

 

[Magilla]

I was called in a couple of weeks ago, they stuffed us around for a couple of days with deferrals then we finally got to see the inside of the court. Judge apologized for the delay and said the legal teams weren't ready. The selection process was painless, about 45 jurors to start with and they picked 12 of which I was one. Only one juror was challenged then we were given an overview of the case and told of our responsibilities. Trial was supposed to start the next day but the legal teams were still arguing about admissible evidence so we were sent home after an hour and a half. Following day we were there for 15 minutes and the judge called us in and said they could not start the case because if they did they would not be able to complete it before the court finished sitting in three days time, so we were thanked and then dismissed. All up I was there for about 4 hours total and received $345, jurors that traveled further received more. It was the easiest money I have ever earned and I now have a three year exemption.

 

[DeathKiss]

Having a brain injury gets me out of having to do so much annoying stuff. Ahhhhhh.

So whatever you say we shouldn't take it for granted ?