JURY TRIALS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29021, 9 October 1959, Page 6

JURY TRIALS

Union Opposes Change

A resolution protesting against a proposed amendment to the Judicature Amendment Act (No. 2), 1955, sub-section 5, was carried at the monthly meeting of the Lyttelton Waterfront Workers’ Union yesterday.

The proposed amendment to which the union objects says: “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the foregoing provisions of this section, in any case where a notice is delivered and served as aforesaid requiring any action to be tried before a jury, if it appears to the Court at the trial, or to a Judge before the trial, that the action or any issue therein can be more convenientlytried before a Judge alone, the Court or Judge may direct that the action be so tried.”

. The meeting carried the following resolution: “That the Lyttelton Waterfront Workers’ Union is opposed to the proposed amendment. to the Judicature Amendment Act, 1955, which, if carried into law, would place the plaintiffs in actions, especially for damages arising out of accidents sustained in employment, in the position of having the Judge alone determine, and possibly prejudice, the merit of a claim, without his having the technical knowledge of the industry in which the accident occurred.

“The New Zealand Law Society is said to be in favour of the proposed amendment, and the reason advanced by the society—that juries do not understand the finer points of law involved—is just as relevant when applied to a Judge and his probable lack of knowledge of an industry when determining whether or not a case should go before a jury. “The jury, as British people all over the world well know, is the rock upon which our legal system is built. It has stood the test of time through the centuries. Any attempt to limit the rights of a plaintiff to have his case heard by 12 men and to place that power in the hands of one man alone, is and must be considered reactionary, and is opposed with all the vehemence at the command of this industrial organisation- We pray that the Government will give due consideration to the view expressed herei in.”