" Civic Duty " Problems !

For many people, the arrival in the mail of a summons to jury duty is an unwanted headache.  The names of the pool of people who will serve on juries in each state is usually drawn from the electoral roll and its random selection is designed to draw across all age groups and gather a representative spectrum of the general population.   This ensures that the accused is judged by a jury of his or her " peers " !

The problem is that trials are becoming longer. It is simply the luck of the draw to which court and which case a juror will be allocated and many dread finding they are going to serve on a sex or drugs case likely to run anywhere between twelve weeks and  six months.   The ultimate horror is to be selected for a terrorist trial - that could take up to a year.

While jury duty is a civic duty, it is not time demanded of citizens without compensation.  In New South Wales a juror is paid $ 106.30 for each day required in court and if the trial is protracted that increases to $ 242.30 a day.   That can be very attractive for the lowly paid and the unemployed, but for higher earners it represents an earning loss.   Those on a pension are required to tell Centrelink of jury payments and usually have their pension adjusted accordingly.

The chances of actually finding yourself in the jury box are rather slim.  Each year the jury roll contains the names of about 250,000 people and about 9,000 - or 3% - get called and selected to serve.   Finding that you are on the jury roll can be a hazard for anyone planning a special event such as a wedding or making arrangements for an overseas holiday.

It is possible to get an exemption from duty, but you will need an exceptional reason.  Claiming deafness will certainly be rejected because courts today have ear phones with amplification available for jurors.   Trial lawyers have the right to challenge and dismiss individual jurors without reason during the empanelling process and some people have adopted a bizarre clothing choice or openly carried copies of Hitler's  Mein Kampf in the hope of being thought unsuitable and challenged.

The worst thing a potential juror can do is to ignore a call to present at court for possible jury selection.   The law takes a dim view of non attendance and what follows is the usual imposition of a substantial fine.   Last year 21,942 people were fined for failing to appear and so far this year the fine total has reached 13,568.   That jury service notice is not a request.  It is a demand - and the court system is relentless in following through.

One interesting aspect is that jury service has the protection of the law.  An employer who sacks a worker because he or she has to be absent for jury duty will be hauled into court and fined and forced to reinstate that worker.

Most of the people who have actually served on a jury end up supportive of the jury system.   Those frightened that they will be unable to understand complex legal argument or the intricacies of some evidence given see that it is ordinary people like themselves that legal counsel need to convince to obtain the verdict they are seeking - and this applies equally to both the prosecution and the defence.
If that evidence is opaque or lacking in clarity, that becomes the basis for the jury to reach a logical decision.

Love it or hate it, jury service is one of life's experiences, and usually a juror only serves once in their lifetime.