Well! My first day at court has come and gone. It was a bit trying (pun intended).
I had to be there at 9:30, and when I got there a few minutes beforehand, there already was a queue. It was standing outside. I was glad it wasn't raining. That's not something you can take for granted in Caernarfon. There was a whole line of jurors, they all had to go through the security check which was right behind the front door. Couldn't they have organised that a bit better? At least have a little roof or something. While we were there, it actually did start raining.
After the extensive security check (they don't seem to have x-ray, so they have to do it all by hand) we were told to go up the stairs where an usher asked to see our identity document and summons letter. And then we were told to sit in a little room. It was packed. There were windows, albeit seeing into another room and not directly outside, but all the chairs facing them were already taken, so I had to take one that only looked out on walls. There were no tables or anything. It was a bit like international travel; a waiting area by a gate or something.
The usher then made us watch a little video, in English, about the process and our responsibilities and suchlike. When the Welsh version that came after was halfway, he asked if anyone actually wanted to see this. Nobody did, so he switched it off. Good.
After a while he brought us case questionnaires. He said there were four trials planned for that day, which seems to be a lot, and he needed to check if any of us was unsuitable to be in any particular one. There basically are two ways of being unsuitable: one is, knowing anyone involved in it. So we got a list of names we needed to check for the first case. As this is Wales, and people have notoriously few names, there were instructions on what to do if the list contains a familiar but common name, like John Williams or something. You then indicate the age of the person by that name that you know, and how you know them. That way they can check if you know this particular one. I knew no one.
The other way of being unsuitable is if the trial is longer than you can sacrifice your time. The first case was expected to last 4 to 5 weeks. I can't stay that long! They would have to cancel my teaching. The students would probably not be amused. They also gave us a questionnaire for a trial that they thought would last three or four days. Again; I didn't know any of the people on the list.
Then nothing happened for a long time. Within 10 minutes, it felt like we had used up all the oxygen in the room. It was really stuffy. The usher said that the room technically had air conditioning, but it was currently broken. That wasn't helping.
I expected questionnaires for the other two cases as well, but they never came.. I had brought an article to read, and a book, and the newspaper, and my phone. More than enough to keep me busy. But I was struggling with the oppressive atmosphere in the room. I felt a headache come up.
After what seemed like an eternity, a whole bunch of people had their name called out, and they were lead away. After a while, a handful came back. It turned out that the people who hadn't come back were now the jury for the very long trial. I had escaped that fate!
In the meantime, the rest of us were watching the clock move closer and closer to 1 pm, which we had been told would be when the whole court breaks up for lunch. There wouldn't be any time to do any meaningful legal work before that time. But just before we got to lunchtime, they read out 12 more names. That would be the jury for the shorter trial. This time they didn't do that ‘selecting more than 12 and sending some back’ thing. Maybe this was a less complicated case? Maybe the other case had complications that didn't feature in the questionnaire? Maybe something with gruesome evidence or something, and they wanted to check individual people how they felt about that? I have no idea. But this was just 12 people and they would be the jury; full stop. I was nr 12.
We were taken to a courtroom, where the judge was very apologetic about the delay. A court official told us what the charge was against the defendant, who was present, and then we were sworn in. I noticed that quite many jurors were swearing the oath on the Bible. And most took the oath in English. Immediately afterwards, we were dismissed. The judge told us to be back the next day, at 2 pm.
I was desperate for fresh air and hoped we could just leave, but we were brought back to the room we had been waiting in. We were not kept waiting long, but long enough for the usher to tell us we shouldn't be back the next day at 2 pm, but at 10 am. The judge had really clearly said the case wouldn't start until 2 pm, so that would mean sitting for three hours in the same terribly stuffy room. Everyone was really disappointed about that. No one had enjoyed it! But if that's what the usher says, then that is what you need to do.
At least then we could pack up our stuff and walk out of the building. That was such a relief! I hoped the next day would be less unpleasant. One way to find out…
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| Pic from the BBC website |
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