Law Weblog

Jury service guidelines remove the need to complete jury service for some people…

Tuesday 22 March 2005 at 10:19 pm | In News | Post Comment

Section 321 Criminal Justice Act 2003 means that the normal presumption is that everyone, unless mentally disordered or disqualified, is required to perform jury service when summoned to do so. This has resulted in an increase in the number of jurors with professional and public service commitments. Therefore the Lord Chief Justice has issued guidelines that considerably weaken the effect of the legislation.
For example; where a juror unexpectedly finds him or herself in difficult professional or personal circumstances perhaps a parent whose childcare arrangements unexpectedly fail or a worker who is engaged in the provision of services the need for which can be critical or Member of Parliament who has deferred their jury service to an apparently more convenient time, but is unexpectedly called back to work for a very important reason – may be excused jury service.

We believe that the intelligent articulate groups who were the target of the legislation will now be able to escape jury service in much the same way as they did before the Act. The need for these guidelines indicates that the legislation was thoughtless and bungled.

Guidelines here.