I am sure I have had a rant about this before but I need another one.......
When are we going to come up with a more efficient court system? I have had two shop managers on jury duty all week, haven't been called but each day they have had to go along at 10am, then back at 2pm and then to call in later to see if needed the next day.
So I have had to arrange cover every day once we know if needed. I am sure there are many other bigger businesses than mine that are affected with key personnel being called up.
Courts only sit between 10-12 & 2-4 - why are they allowed a 4 hour working day??
Why can we not find jurors within the ranks of the unemployed and retired to do this?
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Can you imagine a jury of the unemployed trying an obvious toff? Or of retired Meldrews trying almost anybody?
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ah see you are judging all unemployed being dole scroungers!
What about the unemployed engineers, technicians etc etc that are degree qualified and out of a job?
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>> ah see you are judging all unemployed being dole scroungers!
whereas you seem to be saying that engineers, technicians etc that are degree qualified would never be dole scrounge.
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>> What about the unemployed engineers, technicians etc etc
Not to mention the unemployed 'obvious toffs'. There are a lot of those.
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Not at all, Bobby:)
The point is that we are judged by a jury of our peers, which I take to mean having a vague chance of being representative of society.
Having a jury of people selected from any narrower set is undesirable. That's why we shouldn't let people unselect themselves easily either.
Last edited by: Manatee on Fri 27 Feb 15 at 06:42
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Manatee, so how do we make it better and more efficient?
And why only 4 hours per day?
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That would presume that no work is done in the court when the court is not actually sitting which is clearly not the case.
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>> When are we going to come up with a more efficient court system?
Monday :)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31653760 :)
Well it's a start.
EDIT: separate thread www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=19220
Last edited by: Focusless on Fri 27 Feb 15 at 06:43
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Just wait Bobby till one of your staff gets pregnant. Mrs works in a small office (< 20) and they have two in that state right now. They cannot afford to pay someone else to backfill as well as pay the ladies their dues, business just isn't good enough, but the ladies in question will soon be off for an indeterminate period (up to a year, no real commitment to returning, let alone a specific return date, until 8 weeks before they want to come back - though they can decide not to return).
And, btw, one of the ladies has established that as she continues to accumulate holiday while she is off, she plans to tack the year's holiday allocation onto the end of her maternity leave. And they have both asked whether they would be able to return part-time (no commitment made yet).
Oh, and they both (but one more than the other) have been talking incessantly about their pregnancy, and taking random paid time off for scans etc (not from holiday allowance).
Just to cap it all, one is married to another "senior" worker who is also entitled to some time off at birth time.
I can see that big businesses and institutions can cope but in a small business where everyone has to earn their corn it does seem the employer gets it tough.
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>> Just wait Bobby till one of your staff gets pregnant.
you accusing him of being some Jimmy Saville type boss now?
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I think pregnancy isn't the issue I need to worry about with my staff.......
Cataracts maybe......
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Tell me about it Smokie. In a previous life my ex ex and I owned four small retail stores. Average number of employees four, excluding sat staff. In 15 years we only had one full time member of staff get pregnant. In a small business, where everyone does everything, it can really mess you up. Unexpected days off with morning sickness, doctors visits, no lifting etc. glad I am no longer a small employer.
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>> Courts only sit between 10-12 & 2-4 - why are they allowed a 4 hour
>> working day??
My experience was in England not Scotland so mileage may vary. Here the sitting hours are (roughly) 10 to 4 with an hour or so for lunch, usually 1-2. In so far as those hours are anybody's 'working day' it's the judges. The staff do normal office hours.
Outside public sitting times the judge needs time to read up the case papers and write judgements. He's also likely to have 'box work' on other cases in progress and perhaps case management hearings too. These may be in his chambers rather than open court.
In the civil courts we also had urgent applications usually to do with Domestic Violence or care of children. These were slipped in ahead of the formal 10:00 start or after 4. Don't know if the Crim courts have anything analogous.
Jurors need to travel too and from the court and, if they're going to be representative those timings need to allow for family commitments.
I don't now in detail how excusal/deferral for jurors works in England never mind Scotland. If though you'd got two called up at same time couldn't one of them have got deferral based on others call up and effect on small charity etc?
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 27 Feb 15 at 08:55
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A fundamental corner stone of our legal system. It even convinced a sceptic colleague who was buttonholed for a week last month. Look at it like this if you were wrongly accused of something and ended up in Crown Court you'd want as sharp and cross sectioned Jury as possible...
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Our court system - Manatee
