The Jury System

What is a jury and what is their role?

A jury is a group of ordinary people chosen to be a part of a court case to decide the facts of a case and whether the accused is guilty or not guilty.

Why does our legal system use a jury in trials of indictable offences and some civil matters?

• to ensure the trial is fair as the decisions are made by juries of ordinary people

• helps ensure the trial is fair and unbiased as the decision is between people

Disqualified

Disqualified: people who have previous criminal records

Excused:

deaf, blind

Ineligible

lawyers, magestraits, connection with legal practice

Does the jury determine the sentence in a criminal trial?

No, the jury only decides whether the accused is guilty or not

How are jurors selected from society?

randomly chosen from electoral roll

sent a jury summons and may be called into court

a small group are then chosen through a jury selection to be apart of the jury

What are peremptory challenges?

allows lawyers to remove a protection juror without reasons

What are ‘for cause’ challenges?

during a jury the lawyer requests to remove a potential juror for a specific reason

How many people typically serve on a criminal jury

12

How many people typically serve on a civil jury

6

Diversity

Juries are made up of ordinary people from diverse backgrounds, representing a cross-section of the community. 

Unbiased

Jurors don’t know the accused which allows jurors to make fair decisions based on the evidence instead of personal feelings.

Community involvement

Allows the community to be involved in legal cases, and impact people's knowledge and understanding of how the legal system works.

Fair trial

 Protects accused of injustice

Lack of knowledge

jurors may not understand legal issues and laws, making it difficult to understand a legal case and evidence presented.

Bias

- jurors may not understand legal issues and laws, making it difficult to understand a legal case and evidence presented.

Increase of cost

Jury trials can be expensive as the jurors have to be paid

Time consuming

picking jurors takes time and a case can go on for weeks.

reform of jury system

Provide short training for potential jurors so they can understand legal terms, how court procedures work to get a better understanding of their decisions and to make it a fair trial

Alternative of jury system

Judge only trials, only allowing judges to decide the verdict if the case is extreme, or if jury bias is high