Town mouse on jury service

This week, I ve got jury service. In the lottery of life, I ve got away without doing it before. When the letter arrived last year, I applied to put off the evil day (or fortnight), but you can only postpone once, and the time has now arrived.

I find that attitudes to jury service are revealing. One friend said that he couldn t possibly manage to fit it in, and obtained a letter from the doctor to let him off. Another simply failed to answer the summons. Presumably, the authorities thought he had moved house because he wasn t asked again. Mentioning these strategies to others of my acquaintance has sparked outrage. But it s your duty as a citizen, they say. Besides, they continue optimistically, you might enjoy it.

I am buoyed by the words of a barrister friend. The crown court that I must attend is Southwark; he assures me that it has a very good class of trial West End cases, as he puts it. It makes jury service sound like a musical, although without a plot or interaction with the other players. I just hope the case isn t fraud. However entertaining the novelty, six months of it would pall.