I got called on for jury service about a month ago. My first reaction was "fuck yeah!" until I read where it actually was. It was a courthouse 3+ hours away. Still rather excited, I looked up the bus timetable online and left to venture to this place I'd never been to.

That's when things got a bit shit. When I finally got to the bus centre, it turned out that the online timetable was wrong. Very, very wrong. I was set to be at the court for 10am so I went for the 8:30am bus, but the bus I was to get wasn't there. At all, even. The timetable actually in the place said it wasn't due for another hour. Ended up luckily getting a 8:40am bus that wasn't on the online timetable. Took longer than the other one would have, but I got there in time and managed to find the courthouse... eventually, after discovering that the only indication of its location was a backwards sign facing a wall.

I would never expect court to be exciting, and naturally it wasn't. Both cases ended up pleading guilty, so there was no need for a jury. I didn't get sworn in, but I had another 4 weeks to go, and that's where it pretty much went straight to shit. The next time I had to go, I missed the bus on account of having to wait for a black taxi for 30 minutes, and then construction and an accident blocking traffic (what the fuck.). These buses only come once an hour, and the next one would take an hour and 30 minutes and make me late. I immediately called the court and explained. The jury officer was nice, and excused me and said I should write an e-mail explaining my situation to see if I could be permanently excused, since my circumstances were too difficult. I sent two.

Fast forward to today, same shit happens. Construction, traffic, completely wrong timetable. On top of that, I'm unemployed and didn't have any money for the bus (going from home -> town -> court is about £20, not counting food expenses). I once again immediately called up. New girl was a snooty bitch and kept interrupting me while I was trying to explain. After finally explaining, she went into silence mode for a few seconds and then blurted out "you should be here anyway". After explaining about the e-mails, suddenly they "weren't good enough" and they "didn't get them". Now I had to post a handwritten letter for the judge to review. Then she went on to say that I will most likely be getting fined £1000 (or more) despite the circumstances being completely beyond my control.

So I just posted the letter. Now I'm hoping the judge is understanding.

Boring story but fuck. Don't know what to do now. Can't pay the fine, so it's likely jail time (three months) or community service. I've always wanted to be on a jury, the thought of it was awesome to me, so I have no intention or desire to try and skip out on it, yet I still get fucked over. I was already depressed this weekend over personal issues, now it's just snowballing.

My condolences News Bot, those fuckers can be a royal bitch.

Ignore the snotty bitch. If you already made one trip there and participated in two cases, contacted them twice and wrote two letters, have proof of unemployment and all that etc., there's very little they can do against you. They cannot jail or fine you for being unable to attend for those reasons. So relax and destress.

It was likely just that, a snotty bitch with an attitude who has no compassion or care other than to recite redundant rhetoric to anyone calling up because otherwise she might actually have to 'do' something. I've dealt with numerous assholes like that before who don't really give a shit about anyone and just like to be a dick. It all depends on who you talk to. Worse comes to worse just call back when someone else is there and talk to them and explain things.

So just ignore her bitchy ass and relax. You should be fine. Again, you have all the proof to show you made every available effort to appear and even showed up previously, thus proving you weren't just trying to avoid it altogether. You also have proof you live 3 hours away and are unemployed and the bus fare is too steep for your situation etc.

So again, just relax. You should be fine.

Sorry to hear you've been having a crappy weekend though. Hope it all works out. We may not know each other very well but I'm always available to friends if they need an ear. So feel free. Best Wishes and Regards!

Your endeavor to even attend for the time that you did and your efforts to try and make ammends of the unfortunate cicumstances should be enough for them to overlook such a fine. Shame that you had to deal with such a difficult person; I probably wouldnt take her for word until the fine showed up in print.

Thankfully I evaded jury duty by post-poning twice, once for 3 months and second for the furthest date available (2019 I think). Its not worth the money or time lost at all.

The woman might have been having a crappy day though. I agree that she acted like a complete b**** and was totally out of line, but she might have been having a crappy day and was taking her frustrations out on you. The situation does sound like a huge mess.

I hope everything works out, best wishes

It SUCKS being unemployed and having no transportation of your own. (I take it thats why you took the bus)

Just keep your head up. Your going to find people like this woman everywhere.

Sorry to hear that, News Bot.

I tend to agree with Ikari. You've got proof you have attended previously. They know you're not trying to avoid the service alltogether.

Circumstances are often difficult, but it happens to all of us. Ought not to worry, as theres no way they can fine you £1000 for not showing in this scenario.

I don't understand that jury duty thing that the US (And UK too, I think, not sure?) has. I know we all have to contribute to society but why force it? But anyway, not going to speculate about that since I don't know much about it.

Suffice to say I hope everything works out well, and yes I do agree that this is bullshit. Best wishes, dude.

If it wasn't mandatory it wouldn't exist. Trials can take days or weeks depending. It also means missing work or traveling a good distance daily. And its often a lengthly process that requires a good deal of your time sitting around there.

For all these reasons its very inconvenient for most people. Especially people with busy lives who have to cancel or reschedule tons of things or find baby sitters etc. to do it.

Obviously that means a huge percent of people would decline doing it if it was optional. This is further backed up by the sheer negative connotation associated with getting jury duty and the amount of people who try to get excused.

If it wasn't mandatory you wouldn't have enough people to be on jury for all the thousands of trials and thus the system of trial by jury of your peers wouldn't work.

Sent from my Droid

I'm 29 years old disabled and have a pacemaker in my chest. So the whole "FML" is lame. It was an inconvenience. Whoop de doo