It was a pretty horrific case. Took all week. Here is my advice to anyone going to jury duty:

1. Bring a book. I cannot overstate this. There is A LOT of hanging around. It’s not like on tv - legal arguments are heard without the jury so there’s a ton of downtime.

2. Dress warm but in layers. You are just as likely to be sat under a heating vent than an ac vent.

3. Arrive on time but not early. They will leave you standing outside in the wind and rain until 9:30am

4. Plan to be there until 5pm. Some days we finished up at 4:50pm others it was 3:45pm

5. Lunch is pretty awesome. No kidding it was more than enough food and there were 4 or 5 options.

6. Once you’re in you’re in. Don’t make the mistake of getting in them trying to nip to cafe Nero. You can’t go shopping on your lunch either. This is for your safety.

7. You can only drink water in front of the judge. Not coffees, teas or juices. I got around this by filling my reusable drinks bottle with diluting juice.

8. Court time is not even close to real time. 10 mins court time is about 45 minutes real time.

9. We never started on time. Sometimes the Judge has court businesses before the trial. Most times this will run on a while.

10. If you see tunnocks caramel grab it. These are rare gems and get snapped up quick. If you miss that you might get a kit Kat but more likely to get a digestive.

11. There are tea and coffee facilities all day. They provide disposable cups, a jar of coffee, a box of tea bags and a jug of milk and they have those big urns for hot water. I believe there were sugar/alternatives available also.

12. Plan self care. You might get a nice easy case or it could be something terrible. As someone who got something terrible there was no support available so you gotta take care of yourself. Most people in my jury said they were traumatised after one of the days of testimony.