Kerre Woodham: Our jury system has an efficiency problem

Today, we thought we'd have a look at jury duty, given a story in the New Zealand Herald this morning. I've only been called for jury service once, a couple of years ago, before Covid, which isn't really a couple of years, is it? It's like six years ago. I was keen as mustard. Couldn't wait. 

Fortunately, I have a very supportive employer who's able to sustain me doing my jury service. So I was able to take the week off and I duly reported to the Auckland District Court on the Monday along with a million other people. So we sort of sat around for a while and then somebody with a clipboard called us all together and I was absolutely chuffed to be selected in the first pool of potential jurors, but I didn't make the final 12 We were sitting in the courtroom, but my name wasn't called. Really did feel like I'd failed an audition.

So we trooped back downstairs, those that didn't make it, and I found the person with the clipboard and said, "Look, if I do get called, can we make sure it's a short, sharp jury trial because I'm off to Europe at the end of the week?" And she said, "Oh, don't bother. It's fine. Don't bother coming back." Thanked me for my service and that was that. Couldn't have been easier.

There were a lot of people milling around waiting to do their jury service and I knew about three of them. Very convivial. I'd brought a book, but I didn't really need it. One of those who milled recently, though, a 57 year old Auckland chap, is in the Herald this morning. He said it was a terrible time. He's incredulous that we have such an inefficient, expensive way of administering justice. He added up the daily rate paid to would be jurors and the reimbursement for parking fees, and although to each individual it's a pittance, it all adds up. And he says given that it's taxpayer money, there needs to be a better way of doing things.

He didn't put this in his calculations, but could have. What about the lost productivity to companies that release their employees or for self employed people who have to give up their work to do their civic duty? Official Information Act figures from the Herald, they were supplied by the Ministry of Justice, shows that 7,138,000 was paid in fees and expenses to potential jurors who attended jury service in New Zealand in 2024 Like, it is an individual pittance, but man, he's right, it does add up. More than $7 million, and how much of that is wasted money? Help is on the way.

Acting Minister of Justice, Courts and Justice Services Policy Acting General Manager Megan Noyce said the Regulatory Systems Courts Amendment Bill includes two amendments aimed at making the jury selection process more efficient. The Justice Committee has examined it and it's recommended that it be passed. The first amendment will enable summoned jurors to attend court only when required by the court. It would allow multiple jury panels to be convened in a week, one for each trial, instead of all jurors summoned for that week attending every day.

The second amendment would allow the first part of jury selection to take place outside the court precinct, so you don't have to sit there and mill and catch up with old mates and read your book. It can be done electronically. Electronic balloting would be introduced in the future once the bill is passed and only jurors selected in the ballot would need to attend court. The remainder would only need to attend if they're selected for another trial during that week. So that bill's at the second reading stage.

Presumably, there would be no strong objections from any party to it passing. Should we take the savings we make on jury selection and pass them on to those who actually make it onto the jury? Defence lawyer John Munro told the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning that a decent fee might be a way to reinforce that it's important to do your civic duty.

Given the low figures, I'd actually like to see jury members get more money for sitting on juries because

You reckon that would fix it?

Not necessarily, not won't necessarily fix it, but I do shudder sometimes. I think it's something like $60 or $60 a day for a juror to sit on a jury and I think that's just not enough for people that are self employed. I think a lot of employers need to cover that cost and they should do so in their employment contracts.

Yeah, I mean, if you're self employed, how on earth do you justify it? How on earth can you justify doing your civic duty, which is really, really important, when it's $60 a day? You have to see it basically as a donation of your time because you're not going to see the money back. And employers take a big hit when they let their employees off. And yet it is vitally important.

You probably don't see it as vitally important when you turn up and see that kind of inefficiency. If you are somebody who's in business for yourself, that kind of inefficiency smacks you in the face, doesn't it? You look at that and think, What on earth's going on here? There's a million ways I could make this more efficient, less costly to the taxpayer, and still get the job done, and in fact possibly get the job done better." I would love to hear your experiences, especially if you have been on jury service in recent times. How would you make it better? Do the bills go far enough? Would you like to see an increase in the fee paid to those who actually make it onto juries? And when it comes to juries, do you trust them? Would you select trial by jury if you found yourself in court up on a serious charge? Do you have faith that your fellow New Zealanders would be able to reach a fair decision, would be unbiased, unprejudiced, understand the court proceedings? How much faith do you have in your fellow man?

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