When you meet a juror
At the moment there is a series of Friday articles dealing with matters to do with juries. However as a barrister in practice jurors can prevent an entirely different series of problems.
The main one you have as a barrister are the people who want to talk to you about their experiences on the jury, whether past or present. People who hardly know you, on meeting you at a social occasion and on finding out what you do, will want to tell you all about what happened in the jury room. They regard you as a complete spoilsport when you insist to them that they cannot tell you, and that you cannot listen. Even more, there is something about the jury room, meeting a barrister, and being told that you cannot say anything about it, that seems to bring out in people the irresistible urge to confide.
As the secrets of the jury room should remain just that, I have never actually said to someone "please tell me everything", but I've often wondered if that would be a better tactic. Since telling them not to seems to produce the opposite effect, would telling them to do so act in the same way?
The worst problems is when the person asks you in a situation where you cannot physically move. I was once being measured for a suit. Every time I told the tailor that he could not tell me about his jury room experience, he would agree and then add "but I must just say". He then proceeded to comment upon the performance of the barristers in the case (identifying them by name: I knew them). Needless to say, since he shouldn't have told me and I shouldn't have heard, I have never revealed what was said or about whom.
Even worse are the situations where you come across people who are actually sitting as jurors on an existing case. Sometimes they will start asking you questions and seen both perplexed and annoyed at the repeated mantra "I cannot possibly speak to you about this and you should not be speaking to me". I have found that even the most persistent stop asking you questions if after the fifth one you are still trotting out the same standard line.
Of course it is not just barristers who can bump into jurors. There was amusing incident at the start of a Crown Court trial in Manchester some years ago when the prospective jury was brought in. Before anyone else could say anything, the judge revealed that he and one of the jurors had had an argument in the car park that morning. He said that they "exchanged pleasantries". Everyone wanted to know precisely what that meant, but no one dared to ask. Both sides decided it was safer that that particular juror did not take part in the trial in front of that judge.
One day I might find myself sitting on a jury. Lawyers were always excluded from service, along with other categories such as lunatics and members of the Royal family, but now lawyers can be called for jury service. If I'm ever called, I am sure that I will not develop the irresistible urge to go around telling people about the experience. If I do, I am sure that I will nonetheless manage to keep my mouth firmly shut.