Jury Service: Day 1

Anti-climax

I started my jury service today. Luckily on Sunday night I checked the map they’d sent me to see if there was a particular entrance I needed to use. Turned out the court I was planning to go to, between Borough tube and Elephant, was actually the Inner London Crown Court, and not Southwark Crown Court as I’d thought! Southwark Crown Court is actually located right next to the Thames, overlooking HMS Belfast.

Anyhow, got the train to London Bridge this morning and arrived in plenty of time. Once inside, I went up to the jurors’ waiting room (now I know what airports do with their old departure lounge furniture when they redecorate), and signed in.

We’re given a subsistence allowance (£4.51 per day, or £2.22 if we’re there for less than 5 hours) on a SMART card, which can be used in the jurors’ canteen at the other end of the waiting room. This sounds OK, but doesn’t actually go that far; the canteen (presumably privately run) charges £3.50 for a hot (lifeless) meal, £2.25 for a sandwich and, worst of all, 80 pence for a coffee (more porta-cabin-in-lay-by than Starbucks-Double-Mocha-Chocco-Froth-Delight). I assumed, as everyone there was giving up their time and money to do jury service, that the food would be subsidised and that tea and coffee would be free. Yeah, right.

There were about 150 other people doing jury service there, some on the first week, some on their second. After watching a “this is what the judge looks like” video, I filled in some forms and sat waiting to do my bit for justice. And waited. And waited. I read the Guardian. I did the crossword. I read the paper again. A few people, mostly second-weekers, were called, but other than that there wasn’t anything happening. In the booklet I was sent before attending, it said “you may have to wait some time before your name is called so you will find it helpful to bring along a book or magazine”. I assumed it would be an hour or two at most, but at that point began to think I should have brought along War and Peace and the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Made a mental note not to wear a suit and tie next time.

We were allowed to leave the building at lunchtime between 1pm and 2pm, so I bought a BLT sarnie and wandered along the river to London’s new City Hall, which I’d not seen ‘in the flesh’ before. Looks pretty good. I decided not to go inside, as I figured I needed a little treat to look forward to later on in my service. Perhaps I’ll pop aboard HMS Belfast too — apparently we jurors get discounted entrance.

At 2.30pm the Jury Manager (to be fair, the staff are friendly, good humoured and seem to appreciate that it’s not much fun for us) announced that we could go home. So there you have it, five hours of mind-numbing boredom and no sign of entering a courtroom. What an anti-climax.

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