SERVICE ON JURIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24968, 15 July 1942, Page 2

SERVICE ON JURIES

The comment made in Wellington by the Chief Justice, Sir, Michael Myers, on the increasing difficulty of obtaining sufficiently large jury panels for sittings of the Supreme Court, should have the effect of directing official attention to a problem that must be expected to become more complex as the period of civil disturbance caused by the war is extended. There is ample reason for insistence on a high standard of competence in those who may be required to give service to the country as jurors, and in normal times the .question of the availability of persons eligible to serve in that capacity is not affected by the fixing of a maximum age limit of sixty years. There is, however, no reason to suppose that the mere accident of age, in the case of those male citizens who have reached the legally prescribed limit of three score years, automatically renders them incapable as a class of reaching sound and reasonable conclusions on issues submitted for consideration in a court of law. The capacity of making a just and dispassionate judgment of facts may, indeed, find its maturest expression in many men who* have sixty or more years' experience of human affairs behind them. We believe, too, that men who are at present excluded from the jury panels because of their age would, if enabled to do so, willingly shoulder the responsibility of giving service during the difficult times through which the country is passing. The suggestion that the age limit of sixty years might be raised for the duration of the war has come from the Chief Justice himself, and the adoption of it would certainly seem the logical means of relieving the present situation. It is impossible not to accept the view that the prompt discharge of Supreme Court business is a matter of urgent importance, especially where, as in the case of the larger centres, lengthy criminal lists are common and make heavy demands on the time of members of the judiciary. The plea that jurors called for service are engaged in other work of an essential nature will invariably be listened to tolerantly by the courts, but it may well be argued, as Sir Michael Myers has submitted, that jury service is itself essential, and must take precedence over other duties when the necessity for empanelling a jury has to be met. The position that has arisen, due to the preoccupation of the country's man-power with military or other essential tasks, was clearly indicated by the Chief Justice when he stated that out of 112 persons who had been summoned for jury service at the opening of the current criminal sessions in Wellington not fifty were available after the necessary exemptions had been granted. The work of the courts may be exposed to exasperating delays if steps are not taken to avoid the risk of recurring shortages of jurors.