I promise never to complain about being put on hold again! Well maybe a promise that I’ll end up not keeping but wow the pain of being put on hold doesn’t compete with the agony of waiting to see whether you’ll be called as a juror in the Crown Court.
Having received the summons many months ago, today saw me actually arriving for my first day of the alleged 10-day period I’m forced to clear my calendar and my life for. The run up has been entertaining and mildly frustrating. Receiving messages (which cannot be replied to) giving conflicting information to calls made by court staff is frustrating. Messages and emails saying that dress code is casual but shorts are strictly prohibited is just pure entertainment! What impact wearing shorts has on listening to prosecution and defense evidence and then making a judgement as to which you believe escapes me. I’ve asked the question as I’m now truly intrigued and await the courtesy of their response with baited breath.
The run up also involved filling in forms, one of which asked about any special assistance required. As I’m someone who has hearing loss and use hearing aids in both ears, I naturally divulged that information. Information that I’d hoped would be digested by the system along with being used to ensure that I had as good an experience as is possible in the court environment. Hoped is a lovely word. It implies that you expect and or wish for a particular event that you consider possible to actually be possible. Well experience has taught me that expectations and wishes can crumble but the use of a cheerful mantra used by a lovely friend ‘Build a bridge and get over it!’ gets me through smiling as I imagine her saying it to me. I smiled when I arrived to be confronted by security staff wearing masks and chanting orders which I didn’t hear never mind understand. Top marks when I told them I had hearing loss though as they slowed their speech and repeated. I’d committed a no no! I’d packed a metal fork in my bag so I could eat my lunch. No worries as I could leave it with their staff and collect it at lunch time. Once through the security sensor I had to take my fork to a member of staff in reception for safe keeping. I knew where they were as she’d been pointed out but the additional screening and 1 way system prevented an easy route through to her. I smiled as I walked towards another member of staff who’d been watching my arrival and difficulties in hearing and with their mask firmly attached, they started to say something to me – Deep joy I thought another garbled noise and no way of having the assistance of seeing their face and lip reading. Their intention was being helpful and after another awkward moment I’d managed to understand that they too were pointing me to the member of staff who could look after my fork until lunchtime. Note to self – Next time you buy forks ensure they are not as intimidating! This member of staff saw me coming as they’d been entertained by the previous shenanigans and was preparing a plastic bag for me to place my fork in. She said something to me but heaven knows what it was but I assumed it was related to showing a raffle ticket that she’d give me when I returned – It’s amazing what you can win in raffles these days!
Once I’d built that bridge and relinquished control of my fork to strangers, I moved towards a holding pen for prospective jurors and waited in line to have my ID checked. A lovely lady with a lovely black mask looked at me, looked down at her laptop and made noises. As I didn’t respond to her noises, she looked up at me so we had eye to eye contact. Ohh I thought maybe I should advise that I have hearing loss in case I’m supposed to be answering a question. – Eventually she asked whether I’d changed my phone number and then returned to a pose with her head down. ‘No’ I replied and put my ID away. She turned her back to me and made more noises. When she turned back, I think she was expecting the next Juror and was clearly disappointed to see me still standing there. Again, she turned round and pointed and said something. When she looked at me again, I politely advised that if I could not see her then I could not hear her. She told me to sit in the far corner of the room. Hey I’m used to sitting in the naughty corner so I meekly obliged.
Sitting in the naughty corner as I was to find out was not the ideal place to put someone with hearing loss. As the room filled, I played with the settings on my hearing aids to see which setting was best for me to fathom out what we were being told. Thankfully everyone was very well spaced out. Not in the illegal substances’ way but in the social distancing way and so the court staff eventually removed their mask when they were talking to us. Great! I could just about hear the lady even though being in the naughty corner meant that being assisted with seeing facial expressions and lip movement were tricky. YAY, I managed to keep up until a DVD explaining the processes was put on which had a garbled sound track and a Welsh actress (I think) giving the commentary. The DVD has subtitles. Superb … subtitles!!! How could this not be great? Well let me tell you! The screen was a long way away. The subtitles were in white font on a gradient background which was almost ok when the actual background was dark but if the actual background was light the subtitles effectively blended in. Oh and did I say the font was too small? Realising that I had no idea what was going on for this part of the briefing I donned my facemask and stood closer to the screen ensuring I wasn’t blocking other Juror views.
Hoped – that lovely word! What had happened to the information I’d divulged prior to getting to the court building? Yes it’s understandable that reception issues may occur but once the person is using a list of names to check them in why is this divulged information not used? What, after all is the purpose of asking for it if it is not used? Even taking into account that the divulged information has probably just gone into a court statistic which will make reports look as though disabilities are being properly dealt with – Why are the court staff not trained to pick up on behaviour like mine and act on it?
Behaviour like mine – well having resisted the urge to turn up in a skirt to highlight the absurdity of the ‘No shorts’ rule that I’m eagerly awaiting a response about, I exhibited behaviour which highlighted I was struggling to hear. A brief summary:
At arrival
getting the security staff to understand that I could not hear and understand them
going through the same behaviour with a reception member prior to going to the area where I could relinquish my fork
going through the same behaviour once I’d built that bridge and got over it that the fork would need to fend for itself for a couple of hours.
At ID check
Not having a clue what was going on when the lady was not facing me
Stating my hearing loss and need for sight of the lips of the person speaking to assist me
At briefing
Having to potentially disrupt social distancing so that I could see the diabolical subtitles on the screen as I could not follow the DVD.
So having turned up at 09:00 we were finally told at about 12:30 that we could have an extended lunch until 14:00 due to the trials not being ready to call a jury yet. PHEW we could finally get some fresh air so I cheered up. I made my way immediately to rescue my fork and ensuring that I paid no attention to anyone once outside the court building, I took full advantage of getting an opportunity to have a walk and eat my prepared lunch. I returned as demanded by 14:00 and with the expectation of having to find a fork sitter again but was surprised to be waived through the building security so that I could return to the naughty corner. Around 15:00 my name was finally called in a list of potential jurors and we were led to a courtroom. I was pleasantly surprised that the room we were led to had a good speaker set up and when the judge addressed the room I could hear quite clearly. Such a great difference from the previous room. The defending barrister however was impossible to hear but as ultimately, I was not selected as one of the 12 Jurors it matters not! Having been led back to the holding area I was advised that I need to report back in a couple of days for another anticipated trial. All this without annoying background music and messages stating that ‘Your call is really important to us!’ but none the less all I can say is that this whole system is a dog’s dinner.
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