Four in five skip out on jury duty

Four out of five New Zealanders who receive a summons for jury service are being excused or don't turn up. Yet the justice minister has no plans to change the $62-a-day payment offered to jurors.

And the Ministry of Justice is passing up the opportunity to collect nearly $70 million in fines for jury shirkers.

Figures released by the ministry following an Official Information Act request show that, last year, of more than 320,000 Kiwis called up to a jury, nearly 200,000 were excused for legitimate reasons and 67,000 simply didn't turn up.

Failing to appear for selection carries a maximum fine of $1000 but fines are almost never levied.

Just one fine was issued in 2007, when 70,000 failed to report for service, and none were issued for non-attendance in 2008 when more than 81,000 no-shows were recorded.

Criminal jury manager at the Auckland District Court, Rob Neems, said taking a hard line on fining absent jurors was not the best approach. "The big-stick scenario is not something we want to get into. The person would have to appear and explain themselves to the judge, so there's a huge resource implication."

Jurors are paid $62 per day, increasing to $80 per day on the sixth and subsequent days. These fees – excluding travel and childcare expenses which can be claimed post-trial – totalled $6.4m last year. If all potential jurors who ignored summons in 2009 were fined, it would provide the ministry an additional $67.9m.

Neems would not comment on whether it was worth collecting fines to pay higher fees to those who do attend. However, he said the $62 daily rate cannot be measured against income that a juror might have to forfeit if they are absent from their job. "It's a token of their service. It's an acknowledgement that you're going to be disadvantaged or there's going to be some expense to you for coming for jury service, but it's not a fee that's expected to make up for your lost earnings."

A spokesperson for Justice Minister Simon Power acknowledged low fees could be one factor in why so many people fail to serve. "There's a resourcing issue here. We cannot have a lot of people spending a lot of time chasing people up. A lot of time would be involved bringing these people before the court."

The government has no plans to introduce legislation to enable fines to be issued on an infringement-style basis, which would bypass the need for judicial hearings when levying fines.

Instead, the ministry is focusing on public awareness of the obligation to serve when called up.

Rule changes giving courts the power to defer a juror's service for up to 12 months to allow them to serve at a more convenient time are due to come in from the middle of this year.

At the same time, the catchment area for each court will increase from a 30km radius to 45km, meaning a larger potential pool of jurors could be summonsed.

- © Fairfax NZ News