12 hours ago, stevieb said:

30 weeks doss on full pay. 

Nice work if you can get it. 

Capped at about £65 per day. So not great unless your company are happy to keep paying you full whack. 

I've been called 4 times over the last 25 years or so. I didn't do the last one due to COVID though. Each time, my company just kept paying me, which was nice. Exorcist at I was sent home at about 3pm most days, until I got a 3 week long "nonce" trial.... 

6 hours ago, Sweep said:

I got a 3 week long "nonce" trial.... 

Congratulations for getting off with it

I’ve been called twice; once for a one-day coroner’s court deciding if a bent solicitor who’d been caught with his hands in the till had accidentally or deliberately fell under the wheels of an articulated truck on M61. The other was a rape trial which lasted a week. Once the rape trial was done we were invited back next day for sentencing where they read his previous history. To call him a prolific rapist would be an understatement!

I've never been called - maybe having a criminal record barrs me.

I hope so, I'd be out of business if I'd been called on this trial

4 hours ago, Biggish Dave said:

I've never been called - maybe having a criminal record barrs me.

I hope so, I'd be out of business if I'd been called on this trial

Depends how long you were in Germany. 
 

 

5 hours ago, Biggish Dave said:

I've never been called - maybe having a criminal record barrs me.

I hope so, I'd be out of business if I'd been called on this trial

I got called the other year which surprised me, only had a couple of cautions mind but they mustn't count.

Went to Preston and they picked a jury out of 20 of us and I was told I was a reserve.

Not sure which trial I missed out on but there was two that week, one a fraud trial and other a murder.

I've been itching to get called up 

Knowing my luck I'd get called up over a car parking fine 

Seen and heard enough sick shit working in civil courts to know I never wanna get called up for criminal stuff.

5 hours ago, freds dad said:

Depends how long you were in Germany. 
 

 

Just got 100 hours community service, no GERMANY so looks like I'm just not on the list yet

Never been called and I actually don’t know anyone who has

got called up recently, sat in a room for 3 days doing fuck all,end of 4 day got called up, was appointed head juror, drugs dealing offence, embarrising effort from the police and not guilty, was then dismissed having only served a week,so had another week off and just told work i was still in.

I watched the BBC documentary after the verdict. Horrible case and a lot of damming evidence against her. But even I could see that an argument could be put up in her defence for a lot of it. The CPS knew this and that's why the trial went on for so long. The Crown would have to be bang on with absolutely everything. Imagine what a not guilty verdict would have done.

Didn't really fancy those investigation programs. Too much potential for a mind fuck.

 

2 hours ago, fester58 said:

got called up recently, sat in a room for 3 days doing fuck all,end of 4 day got called up, was appointed head juror, drugs dealing offence, embarrising effort from the police and not guilty, was then dismissed having only served a week,so had another week off and just told work i was still in.

The courts are a shit show with lack of staff.

The CPS is a shitshow with a lack of staff.

The police are a shitshow with a lack of staff.

All used to have folk that could do the admin and support services that they are too busy to deal with trying to actually do their job.

29 minutes ago, Winchester White said:

The courts are a shit show with lack of staff.

The CPS is a shitshow with a lack of staff.

The police are a shitshow with a lack of staff.

All used to have folk that could do the admin and support services that they are too busy to deal with trying to actually do their job.

Thats what 13 years of austerity does for you...

23 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Thats what 13 years of austerity does for you...

Angela Raynor used to smoke weed though

2 hours ago, Winchester White said:

The courts are a shit show with lack of staff.

Tell me about it.

And its not just front line stuff where you might have a clerk or usher running about between 2 or 3 courts trying to remember who's who and trying to keep in mind who's a potential danger or who might not be best mixing with someone from another court.

It's lack of people running the office downstairs who might specialise in running or listing or liaising with family based people (which calls for certain skills and sensitivities) that get called into working civil or criminal stuff (which is more robust and direct).

I'm small time in comparison to what professionals deal with, but imagine starting the day with an adoption celebration where you're hosting an ecstatic family and child and the judge that put them there, then 30 minutes later sitting at arms length from a man who says that fingering his own daughter while she has a bath is good for her development.

14 hours ago, MancWanderer said:

Never been called and I actually don’t know anyone who has

Nuts isn't it. I've been called up 4 times, my Father-In-Law has been called up at least twice that I know of, one of my work colleagues has been called up 3 times. I do know plenty of people who have never been called up

Anyway, for those who've never done it, it's dull as fuck, as normally you're sat around doing fuck all, and potentially losing money, if your work won't top your wage up

I also decided, on my last time, that it's a farce. The case was an Uncle who had nonced his 3 nieces over a few years, he'd definitely done something to the younger one and the middle one. A load of shit was spouted by the defence, as they decided to over egg the story, the eldest girl told so many lies it was untrue. Anyway, after a couple of weeks of listening to both sides, we were instructed by the judge to find the defendant "not guilty" on all 14 counts......even though we know he was guilty of at least half of them. The general gist, I think, was that the lies told were so easy to pull apart that any subsequent retrial, would have seen it thrown out of court, and it wasn't in the public interest to carry on. The seedy looking defendant laughed when told he was free to go......

A statement is now being read by Phillip Astbury KC on behalf of the father of baby G, a baby girl who Letby tried to kill in September 2015.

The father of baby G says that she needs substantial care and her mother only gets about two hours' sleep a night.

She was left severely disabled as a result of Letby's attacks. The child is registered as blind, nil by mouth, and has cerebral palsy and progressive scoliosis (spinal curvature). She needs a spinal operation but there is concern that she may not survive the surgery.

Baby G's parents say: "What if she outlives us? Who will care for her then?

"Her condition affects every aspect of our lives... We see other families and their children fishing... playing football... other things we can't do."

"She will never have a sleepover, go to high school, have a boyfriend, get married".

Didn't even realise some had survived and been left in this state.

Hope she burns.

11 minutes ago, Spider said:

Didn't even realise some had survived and been left in this state.

Hope she burns.

I didn't know any had survived. 

I presume she's going to have to be in solitary for the rest of her life..........otherwise you'd think she'll be being sliced up on a regular basis

I've been twice, first time went for week and a half and just sat reading paper or playing on yer phone and never got a sniff but did go home early most days.

Second time was during Covid and a lot less people there, after the first couple of days of boring nothingness i got on an aggravated assault case, prosecution team were weak as p*** and the defence barrister could have done it in her sleep, 3 days and not guilty, out of them 3 days you might only be in the court room less than 3 hours, its very stop start and jury out all the time.

As for Lucy Letby something not right and something screaming Scapegoat!!!

 

11 hours ago, Marc505 said:

Tell me about it.

And its not just front line stuff where you might have a clerk or usher running about between 2 or 3 courts trying to remember who's who and trying to keep in mind who's a potential danger or who might not be best mixing with someone from another court.

It's lack of people running the office downstairs who might specialise in running or listing or liaising with family based people (which calls for certain skills and sensitivities) that get called into working civil or criminal stuff (which is more robust and direct).

I'm small time in comparison to what professionals deal with, but imagine starting the day with an adoption celebration where you're hosting an ecstatic family and child and the judge that put them there, then 30 minutes later sitting at arms length from a man who says that fingering his own daughter while she has a bath is good for her development.

My brother used to work for the probation service. The stories he told were significant too.

I've had a look at employment within the service and that of the prison service too.

Difficult to get comparable information because of changes to structure and names of the service, however from what I can see there are more full time employees in it now, than in 2009. I picked that year as its when the numbers started dropping. 

Structural changes helped bring in folk from private sector. 

There are also many more lawyers/legal people.

Obviously there is a covid backlog to work through, but what is your experience from talking to folk?

From my brothers point of view, he reckoned some colleagues were lazy and not "connected" to the role, as well as there being a large workload.

Are more people being brought before the courts too?

Another potential bottomless pit for cash it seems.

Back to the case in point: mixed feelings about "making" a defendant appear for sentencing.

Morally, yes, but practically no.

A legal lady this morning saying that the court has a respectful and professional manner, and that a non-compliant individual making a scene would make a mockery of it. She suggested perhaps a video link into the cell.

Giving a judge powers to impose an extra bit of time, or reduce prison privileges is another option.

I'll not say Which court i was at but from my experience, you would only have needed a basic knowledge of the lay out of the building and a relatively easy shove past the elderly half asleep court usher to have had it on yer toes out the dock down a few flights of stairs and out the staff side door onto the street and off.

Suppose the security might be better in more high profile cases but seemed very casual to me.