David Farrar notes with some alarm a story on Jury Trials in Auckland, where the claim is made that very few people bother to turn up (1 in 10), others never make a contribution (and there is doubt that they could understand English in the first place), and others make their decision on the verdict while picking a foreman (i.e. before the trial even starts).

I've never actually served on a jury, but I would like to, to see how it really operates. However, unless I become an Australia citizen, I'm unlikely to anytime in the near future.

I have been summoned 3 times in New Zealand, but the first time was during my final uni exams (and so was excused easily). The second time I was summoned to the Palmerston North High Court, but I had moved to Auckland several weeks earlier (but less than the month required before you can update your electoral role details), and so they gave me a 12 month exemption - not sure why, I only asked to not have to serve in Palmerston North.

The final time was for a trial to be held during my honeymoon. Again, they excused me, but I wouldn't have gone regardless :-)

In none of these cases though, did they ever ask for any evidence for my claims. This does lead me to wonder how many people are excused for fabricated reasons.

It's unclear from the article whether the 10% who have shown up in recent weeks in Auckland are 10% of those originally summoned (and so most of the others have been excused), or 10% of those expected to show up. Maybe the courts need to crack down harder on those who just ignore the summons - from what I recall, it is an offense not to turn up, but the fine is rather insignificant, so is not much of a deterrent.

Posted by Dave Bryant at 11:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)