USE OF JURIES IN CIVIL CASES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 258, 28 July 1936, Page 8

USE OF JURIES IN CIVIL CASES

Barrister’s Suggestion EXPENSE A DRAWBACK TO LITIGANTS Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, July 27. An aspect of the use of juries in civil cases, which was referred to when the Judicature Amendment Bill was before the House last week, was the extra expense which Obey caused to litigants. Approached for an opinion in regard to this matter to-day, Mr. C. J. L. White, a prominent Dunedin barrister, said he thought the Goveminent miglit well consider the questlou of providing civil juries free to litigants. Jury trials were expensive, and £8 each day had to be deposited with the court. If a trial was likely to last five days, plaintiff must be prepared to deposit. £-10 before the trial ended, a serious drawback to plaintiff in poor or only moderate circumstances. Mr. White thought, too, that while the Government was dealing with the question of juries it should, in accord with its excellent policy of placing the Crown ou the same footing as the ordinary litigant, repeal the section of the Crimes Act giving the Crown the right iu criminal cases to order any number of jurymen to stand aside. The present position is that accused has only six challenges, while the Crown can practically select its own jury, as was demonstrated last year when in a Dunedin trial the Crown stood aside no fewer than 27 jurors.