Jury service, what do they know about you?

I wouldn't worry about not being picked. Its both sides prerogative to pick and choose if they don't like a juror for whatever reason. Could be any reason but it is not based on info about you.

I'd guess it purely on appearance and their preferred profile for the case being defended e.g. they may not want older, conservative people etc.

I'd imagine it wouldn't be good for defence team to have access to your personal details if you end up on the jury.

Yeah, that's all really.

They know pretty much nothing about you but a huge amount of on-the-spot profiling is done based on your age, gender, clothing, comportment, general demeanour, etc. Jury selection is something of an artform and both sides will try to stack the jury in what they see as their favour, e.g. in sexual assault cases the defence generally want more male than female jurors, etc. It's a dance between the prosecution and the defence based on who they think is going to be most favourable towards their desired outcome.

it's there alright, you can choose to affirm if the bible isnt your thing.

Exactly, they know your occupation and definitely use that as a factor which I know from experience. You'll find that if there is a money laundering case, for example, then the prosecution will probably go for people who work in roles such as IT/Admin/Accountancy because others might get way too bored making it difficult to present the normally tedious detailed evidence. Other than that its age, gender and possibly how you present yourself.

How do they know your occupation? It's not asked for when you register to vote. I just checked my entry in the register of electors and there's nothing about my occupation.

You get a jury summmons, you turn up. How does anyone in the courts service or either of the legal teams in the case you will be hearing know your occupation?

IIRC you have to reply to the summons and I think they ask you for your occupation on the reply form.

Spent a week on a jury last year and it only took us half an hour to find the defendant guilty - The judge then gave him a suspended sentence!!

Waste of everyone’s time , sums up why there is so much crime in this country .

I don't think this is true in Ireland.

The culture among prosecuting authorities is very much that you take the jury you get. Unless there's a real issue, like one of the jurors has a connection to a witness or to the defendant, the prosecution doesn't often challenge jurors.

The defence does so a bit more frequently, but they have very limited information about the jurors and most experienced criminal lawyers are very aware of how unreliable stereotypes are. In the real world, Jacinta the single mother is much more likely than Caroline the middle-class accountant to live in a community ravaged by drug-dealing and anti-social behaviour; she is concerned about protecting her own kids; why would you assume that she is tolerant of this? Geoffrey and Benjamin the finance bros can read a set of accounts, won't be so easily blindsided by technical arguments about bookkeeping practices as others might be, and just might actually think that honest is important in the financial professions. There's no real reason to think that challenging jurors based on lazy stereotypes will, in the real world, have the effect that the stereotypes would suggest.

I know a couple of people who got the letter and just didn't bother turning up. There was no follow-up on them.

The prosecution might not be looking but you can be sure the defence is.

Why on earth would the court service ask for occupation then if they're not going to tell anyone...?

I thought they were supposed to reject before the swearing stage started i.e. if it looked like you were going to affirm instead of swear they couldn't use that as grounds. At least that's what I recall from the two juries I served on

No-one should have to declare in court what their religion is or is not, it's easy to imagine certain jurors taking a dim view of non-Christians and if I was a defendant I'd be getting my hand on that bible for sure! The notion is archaic in the extreme.

Probably something similar to a disgraced ex-president.

I was on a jury once outside of Dublin and it was at the swearing in stage that the objections were made. Our names were called out during the various roll calls, which made some of my colleagues very uncomfortable.

The judge can be some surly ballax

There should be a way of trying to talk to the judge privately if you need to be excused. Instead of having to stand in front of everyone, made start swear the oath and try say 'can I speak to you' etc

Not much. They invited me for jury service and it was up to me to tell them I dont qualify cos Im not an Irish citizen.

You might have changed job and 'forgot' to tell them that you are now eligible for service 😁

They've looked at those details before you walk into the room. I've seen it in a number of sources (such as https://www.thejournal.ie/jury-service-in-ireland-1385791-Mar2014/) that both sides have your name and occupation but I can't find any official source. My experience is they probably do have occupation.

worth a look

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Runaway_Jury

Occupation is important as some people are mandatorily excluded, e.g. they are a garda, while some have the option of self exclusion, e.g. a surgeon.

Objected to or self-excluded (maybe they knew someone)?

BTW if there is a problem with you serving AFTER you take the oath, the whole process of selection may have start again. This happened in my experience when a selected sworn. in juror announced that he was unable to read or write