Some trials are sensational, but jurors cannot always rely on getting a stimulating case to hear. Grant Faber, a juror in Oregon, recently left the case he was hearing at lunch time and did not go back in the afternoon because, as he told police when they later apprehended him, he was “extremely bored” in court.

Tedium, though, is not a recognised excuse for abandoning jury duty; Faber is now facing court again, this time as the defendant in a contempt of court case. In an interview with police that had been despatched with an arrest warrant from the judge, Faber said he found the proceedings at Washington County courthouse so dull that he “just couldn’t take it any more”. Assuming he finds his own trial a sufficiently interesting drama to attend, the proceedings will begin next month.

In issuing a warrant for Faber, the the judge did the right thing. There are, however, worse cases of courtroom absenteeism. In 1981, Alexander Steel was on trial for robbery in London. He requested bail to leave the court at lunchtime. Benevolently, the judge agreed but warned the defendant of the absolute need to return in the afternoon. “If you do not turn up” the judge declared, “you will make me look a proper Charlie”. That night, police were still searching for Steel.

Bored jurors have been in trouble before in many jurisdictions. In Sydney, in 2008, a major drug conspiracy case had been running for 66 days and had cost the taxpayer about $A1 million when the judge aborted the trial because it had become evident that five jurors had been playing Su Doku during the proceedings. It was only after 105 witnesses had given evidence that someone noticed the jurors were apparently taking notes vertically rather than horizontally.

It is not only jurors who get bored. Sir Lewis Cave, an English High Court judge from 1881-97, was prone to doze off on the bench during what for him were the less interesting parts of his cases. The techniques used by barristers to awaken him during their speeches included dropping heavy law books on the floor and banging the flaps of their seats.

Through centuries of legal education, there have been plenty of instances of students finding law lectures dull. In the gentlemen’s toilet of one law school there is written neatly on the wall: “For the latest lecture of Dr Blank, please press the button” with an arrow pointing to the hand-drying machine.

Professor Gary Slapper is Director of the Centre for Law at The Open University

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