Field trial delayed after half the jury sent home

The trial of a former government minister is in "limbo" after more than half the jury members were discharged yesterday because they couldn't serve the three months the court case is expected to take.

Justice Rodney Hansen discharged seven jurors - five women and two men - who couldn't serve on the jury that will hear bribery and corruption charges against former MP Taito Phillip Field.

Replacements couldn't be immediately found because there were not enough potential jurors available in court yesterday.

The judge asked the remaining five jurors to come back today because the trial was effectively "in limbo" until the full jury could be empanelled.

That would hopefully happen this morning when it could get under way with an opening address from Crown prosecutor Simon Moore SC.

The loss of seven jurors took lawyers by surprise with Justice Hansen saying it had been a "larger than expected fallout of what they have discovered overnight".

The original 12 jurors were released early on Monday before opening remarks so they could tell their families and employers they had been selected to serve on a case that could take three months.

Field faces 35 charges, 12 for corruption and bribery as a member of Parliament and 23 counts of wilfully perverting the course of justice.

The charges were laid after he allegedly accepted work on seven of his properties by Thai nationals in return for immigration assistance between November 2002 and October 2005.