Hereof fail not at your peril!
JAMAICA SS.
Parish of Kingston and St. Andrew
To Bull Mad P. 18 Cow Pasture Way, K08 Database Admtr.
You are hereby required to be, and appear at Her Majesty’s next Circuit Court in and for the parish of Kingston and St. Andrew to be holden at the Court House on King Street, Kingston on the 01/11/2002 - 22/11/2002 ensuing, at 10 o’clock in the forenoon, there to serve as a common Juror, and not to depart without leave of the court, or in due course of Law.
Hereof fail not at your peril.
If you make default in pursuance of this Summons, without some reasonable excuse, you will render yourself liable to a fine of $2000.00. etc., etc.
So as you can see, I have to do jury duty. Here, most people I know try to get out of it, because it is seen as tedious, and maybe even dangerous. They tend to plead sick with a Doctor’s certificate. I am not so inclined.
I do have a lot of stuff to do at work though, and I was told that I could get them to write a letter requesting that I be excused so that I could tend to these URGENT business matters, but apparently my company has done this too many times in the past and the Courts have come down heavily on them, so they say they no longer do this.
I could elect to just pay the fine, but knowing those bastards, they would probably come and arrest me on a Friday evening and cart me off to jail, there to stay until Monday morning when they could carry me to see the judge, and I ain’t taking any chances where a Jamaican jail cell is concerned! “No problem!”, say I. Hell, I can use a break from the workplace anyway. And it may well prove to be interesting. Theres just one thing…
Who the F. are they calling a “common” juror?
Hmph! There is nothing common about me!
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I’ve missed twice.
I’ve been fortunate to avoid jury duty up to now. I only got called once and I was due to move out of that county before the date of the sitting.
Most people I know say it is very boring, people don’t turn up etc.
But you are common!
Sorry, but assuming that Jamaican legal system derives from English, it will stem from the principle of justice that the accused be tried by a jury of their peers, which for the likes of me and you would be other common people, but for the aristocracy could be the House of Lords, which is why Lords are, incorrectly, known as peers!
A colleague of mind was 7 months pregnant when summoned and was thus excused from a high profile murder case which was scheduled to last quite a few weeks. I overheard on the bus someone discussing that a colleague of their’s was on that jury and had to have police escorts to leave the back entrance of the court room to avoid the physical threats.
Hi Gertie…
Firstly, I was just kidding. :-)You’re right, I guess. According to the British Legal System, upon which ours is based, I would be common. But guess what? I (and most other people I know) don’t really buy in to this “Lord” and “Lady” thing too much. We all get up and pull our pants on the same way, you know what I mean?I can accept it when the person is being honoured for current achievements, but all these people who are Lords and Ladies based on it being conferred upon their ancestors centuries ago… I say they’re just as “common” as I am. I’d wager that only the Brits think of them in any other way.
No, here common has rather negative connotations. More like uncouth, uneducated, undesirable… All of which I am MOST definitely not! (at least in my opinion).
But thanks for the heads up Gertie. I would not have picked up on that being the reason why they were calling me (ugh) “common”.
YOU COMMONER!!!!