What is a jury and what do they do?
Do I have to do my jury duty if I am selected or can I be excused?
If I have been sent a notice to serve on a jury, does that mean I’ll be put on the next jury available?
What is a jury and what do they do?
Juries are a very important part of our justice system.
A jury is made up of 12 members of the public chosen in the first instance through random selection from electoral rolls in the Court area, then through a further selection process at the court. Juries sit in on court cases – they listen to the information put forward by the prosecution and defence. They discuss the information as a group, identifying what facts have been proven and they apply the law to these facts. Juries then decide whether defendants are guilty or not guilty.
Do I have to do my jury duty if I am selected or can I be excused?
If you are chosen, you have to serve unless you can be excused or disqualified because:
- Of work commitments, childcare responsibilities or physical disability
- You are over 65 years of age and do not wish to serve
- Of your religious beliefs
- You have served on a jury within the last two years
- You are closely connected with someone in a trial
People who can’t serve on juries are:
- Lawyers
- Police officers
- People who work within the court system
- Some people who have been in prison
- People with a mental disorder
- People with an intellectual disability
You can apply to be excused from jury service because of the reasons listed above, or if your employer won’t let you. If you think you qualify to be excused, you have to complete Section C of the Response Form. You need to include proof of your reasons. If your employer won’t let you serve on the jury because your absence would cause a real problem at work, you need to include a letter from them stating why.
Send the completed Response Form and your jury summons to the Court as soon as you can. Even if you are excused for one jury service, you can be called back again in the future.
More information is available on the Ministry of Justice website about jury service.
If I have been sent a notice to serve on a jury, does that mean I’ll be put on the next jury available?
No. There is a process for jury selection. Once you have been sent your notice to serve your jury duty, you will go into court for the jury selection process. A court registrar will randomly draw names of prospective jurors from a ballot box. Once your name is called, you have to go forward and take a seat on the jury. As you’re doing this, defence and prosecution lawyers have the right to “challenge” you before you sit down. This means they can reject you for that case and they don’t have to say why. So sometimes you might not get to be on the first case your name is called for, and you may end up not being on any jury, though you must attend the Court each day for a week.
More information on jury service is available on the Ministry of Justice website.