LAWS THAT allow professionals and public servants to be automatically excused from jury service need to be changed to ensure juries are more representative of the middle class, according to the Law Reform Commission.
The commission wants to end automatic exemptions and replace it with a system of pleas to be excused for “good cause”. The commission’s consultation paper on jury service, to be published today, is the first wide-ranging analysis of jury service in 30 years.
While professionals involved in legal affairs are ineligible from jury service, there is a much larger category of people who are automatically “excusable”.
The group includes doctors, dentists, nurses, chemists, TDs and senators, civil servants, teaching staff, lighthouse keepers and members of the clergy.
Many of these jobs were traditionally regarded as the “pillars of society” and were exempted so they could continue their work. Others, such as clergy, were also exempted on the basis that their presence could intimidate other jurors.
Former Supreme Court judge and president of the commission, Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, said juries need to properly reflect the wider community.
“We are saying that people who are ‘excusable’ should have a proper excuse if they are not going to serve on a jury. Otherwise, unemployed people, pensioners and students are overrepresented,” Mrs Justice McGuinness said.
“There is nothing wrong with these people on juries, but they don’t reflect society. If a jury is meant to be a jury of your peers, it should reflect the population.”
Ray Byrne, the commission’s director of research, also said the list system of exempted professions was leading to a skewing away from the “educated and middle class”.
Under the new proposals, those ineligible for jury service – such as lawyers, gardaí and others involved in legal affairs – would still be barred from jury service.
Among the consultation paper’s other proposals are that:
l Jury panels be based on the electoral registers for local and European elections, allowing not only Irish citizen but also EU citizens and long-term residents to be selected for jury service;
l Fluency in English should be introduced as a requirement for all jurors;
l Jurors should be allowed deferral of service for up to 12 months;
l No person should be prohibited from jury service on the basis of physical disability alone;
l Reasonable accommodation be put in place for hearing and visually-impaired jurors to assist them in undertaking of juror duties. The commission also says jurors should be instructed not to search for information on the internet regarding defendants.
In addition, there should be a new offence to prohibit jurors from conducting their own independent research during trials.
It says the issue of jurors who obtain information independently of the court is emerging as a “significant matter of concern”.
“Before the widespread availability of the internet, a juror who sought media reports or court judgments or information about a defendant, needed to spend a significant number of hours and indeed money in retrieving such information from libraries,” the document says.
On the issue of compensating jurors, the commission recommends that jurors should not be paid. However, it is inviting submissions on whether a limited form of expenses should be introduce to cover costs directly incurred from participating in the jury system.
It also suggests maintaining the system of “peremptory challenges”, which allows legal counsel to object to up to seven individuals being included on a jury panel.
While it provisionally recommends that this be retained, the commission is inviting submissions as to whether the number of individuals who can be challenged be reduced from seven.
Excusable: those who need not serve
Categories of persons among those listed as excusable from jury service include:
Medical practitioners
Dentists
Nurses
Midwives
Veterinary surgeons
Pharmaceutical chemists
A member of the staff of either House of the Oireachtas
Heads of government departments and offices
Any civilian employed by the Minister for Defence
Local authority chief officers
The principal of a college, or other educational institution, and any professor, lecturer or member of the teaching staff
Whole-time students
Source: Juries Act (1976)