Jury duty becoming pensioners' domain

A big increase in the number of retirees and beneficiaries sitting on juries in the past six years has raised questions over the adequacy of the jury system.

Figures show the number of retirees sitting on juries has increased 10-fold since 1999 to reach 3000 each year - a result of legislation that allowed over-65-year-olds into the selection process.

In the same period, the number of beneficiaries on juries has tripled to more than 700 a year, and one lawyer claims the increases have "reduced the pool of available common sense".

Philip Morgan, QC, a Hamilton lawyer and spokesman for the Law Society's criminal section, said longer trials had put pressure on the system.

"The number of people to choose from that can sit on those long cases gets smaller and smaller ... I don't think that's a good thing," he said.

"The whole idea of juries is to have a representative sample of the community exercising common sense. Skewed numbers like that are reducing the pool of available common sense."

Mr Morgan said there was no easy answer to the problem, but any improvement was dependent on the public response.

"The public need to understand it - they avoid jury service, they are doing themselves a disservice.

"They are not ensuring that the jury pool is as representative as it could be," he said.

"I talk to people who say they want to get out of serving and I say, 'that's not good enough. You must do your public duty'."

There are about 3000 jury trials in New Zealand each year, requiring 36,000 jurors and research shows only 20 per cent of all jurors called for empanelling bother to show up.

University of Canterbury law expert Jeremy Finn said the increasing numbers of retirees and beneficiaries did not mean that bad decisions would be made.

For the most part, both groups had significant life experience and would bring valuable skills.

He also put the increase down to longer jury trials.

"My impression is that jury trials are getting longer, and who else has the ability to serve on such trials without suffering hardship?"

Justice Minister Phil Goff has introduced changes that will see jurors' pay lifted from $50 a day to $62 and parents able to claim childcare expenses.

Further changes are likely to be in place by the end of the year, although Mr Goff did not want to describe them as a reaction to system concerns.

In future, jurors will get more information - in some cases the judge will even release an "issues" sheet, detailing the legal issues to be decided - and majority verdicts will be introduced.

Jurors who try to avoid service will receive a 12-month deferral before a second call-up.

"We're trying to get a better cross-section," Mr Goff said.

"I think it will improve the quality of the decision-making process."

- NZPA