An old saying goes that the only people exempt from jury duty are lawyers and the insane.
Well thankfully I am neither. Last week I had the dubious pleasure of serving jury duty. This means that out of everyone on the electoral roll, I was one of 60, 000 Victorians who are selected each year to perform this civic duty.
The selection process – “empanelling”
The process of empanelling is mostly random and aims to select and unbiased jury who are reflective of the civic values of society. If you are on the electoral roll then guess what? Chances are you will be called at some stage of your life. You have much better odds of being chosen to serve jury duty than of winning tattslotto.
Just because you are called for jury duty does not mean you will serve on a jury (for a variety of reasons which I’ll go into later). You may defer your summons, as I did initially, for a variety of reasons including having a prepaid holiday or being a primary carer for dependants.
On the day
Entering the county court is akin to going through security at the airport; there’s a fair bit of argy bargy to ensure you are not smuggling in sharp objects or explosives into the building.
All potential jurors sit through a dated introduction video where we are told that having a lawn bowls grand final is NOT a valid reason for excusing yourself from jury duty.
When there is a court case that needs a jury, 30 names are drawn from a box. These 30 people then troop up to the court room to meet the judge, lawyers for the prosecution and defence, and to get a glimpse of the accused. There is another random selection, this time of 12 people. The accused has the right to “challenge” up to 6 of these 12 without stating a reason.
Once empanelled you are given secure access passes to enter the building by a concealed entrance. This enables you to avoid the media packs that hover outside the front door whenever there is a juicy case. Alas my case was not so juicy, and I was not granted my five minutes of fame.
Cone of silence
It should go without saying but as the judge patronisingly reminded us every day, we were NOT to discuss the case with anyone but our jurors inside the jury room. This was to prevent us being swayed by non-evidence. My unwillingness to disclose anything however did not prevent comments from friends such as: “he’s obviously guilty as night and night” and “hang the bastard”...
Summary
I was in court for 7 days – a bit longer than the average trial. The hours were very reasonable: 10.30am-4.15pm excluding weekends and including a lunch break for at least an hour each day.
Overall the experience was an interesting learning opportunity. I can’t say that I’d like to do it again as it too much of a life disruption, but maybe I’ll be ready to serve again when my exemption expires in 3 years time.
