Jury duty revamp to ‘save time and money’

OVER 37,600 Dublin residents were called to jury service in the first ten months of 2018, new figures show.

But the huge drain on people’s time, experienced across the country, has led the Courts Service to organise a major revamp of the jury selection system.

Dublin had by far the largest number of jurors called between January and November 2018, with 37,600 asked to attend for court.

Of those, 7,546 showed up as requested with a further 26,782 excused for a variety of reasons. Another 3,272 people were noshows, according to the figures. From those listed as ‘excused’, 495 turned out to have been dead, while in 2,385 cases, their letter was ‘returned to sender’.

Ineligible jurors are people involved in the administration of justice such as judges, gardaí, soldiers, prison officers and lawyers. People suffering from serious ongoing illnesses are also exempted.

Those excused ‘as of right’ include TDs and senators, many medical personnel who provide an ‘important community service’, and some who can demonstrate that their work cannot be done by anybody else. Selfemployed people – particularly sole traders – can sometimes be excused from service as their business could suffer if they are forced to serve through a long trial. Counties with high levels of self-employment in agriculture and construction can often have higher than normal excusal rates as well.

A spokesman for the Courts Service said there had been a significant drop in the numbers not attending for jury service compared to a decade ago.

Non-attendance in Dublin fell from approximately 34% in 2003 to under 10% by 2017. The introduction of a penalty of €500 along with extra staff resources led to a large increase in the numbers attending for service, according to the Courts Service.

The spokesman said: ‘Plans are being drafted to fully centralise the jury summons function and for answering queries and requests for excusal in the coming year. This is expected to add efficiencies in terms of both approach and cost.

‘It will improve communication regarding the process with those summonsed and should further improve attendance rates.’

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