Jury duty

Service as a juror in a legal proceeding
Jury duty or jury service is a service as a juror in a legal proceeding. Different countries have different approaches to juries. Variations include the kinds of cases tried before a jury, how many jurors hear a trial, and whether the lay person is involved in a single trial or holds a paid job similar to a judge, but without legal training.

The English model of a jury draws jurors from among the citizens. Under the National Employment Standards, make up pay is required only for the first ten days of jury service; however, the laws of Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia extend the make up pay requirement for the entire duration of the jury service.

The jury system in New South Wales is administered by the Jury Services Branch of the Office of the Sheriff of New South Wales, an office in the New South Wales Department of Attorney General and Justice, and operates in accordance with the Jury Act 1977 and Jury Amendment Act 2010. These laws detail persons who are disqualified, ineligible, or may be excused from jury service. In addition, the Jury Exemption Act 1965 and section 7, "Excuse for cause", of LRC Report 117 (2007) details other persons who can or may not serve as jurors or otherwise claim exemption. Individuals who are blind and/or deaf may be excluded from jury service. During the juror selection process, both parties can object to up to three potential jurors without providing reasons. The Office of the Sheriff of NSW disseminates resources for jurors. Jurors may be compensated for their service.

According to 2016 figures from the Ministry of Justice, there is about a 35% chance of people in England and Wales being summoned for jury service over the course of their lifetime. In Scotland, the percentage is much higher due to having a lower population as well having juries made up of 15 people (as opposed to 12 people in England and Wales).

When a person is called for jury duty in the United States, that service is mandatory, and the person summoned for jury duty must attend. Failing to report for jury duty can result in a wide range of penalties, from simply being placed back into the selection pool to immediate criminal prosecution and having a bench warrant issued for contempt of court. Employers are not allowed to fire an employee for being called to jury duty, but they are typically not required to pay salaries during this time. An individual who reports to jury duty may be asked to serve as a juror in a trial or as an alternate juror, or they may be dismissed. In the United States, government employees are in a paid status of leave (in accordance with ) for the duration of time spent serving as a juror (also known as court duty or court leave by some organizations). Many quasi governmental organizations have adopted this provision into their contract manuals. Federal courts mostly use the United States Postal Service in their communications with prospective jurors, and any calls that are made will never ask for personal information.

A mixed tribunal is one in which the case is tried collaboratively by a combination of trained judges and lay jurors. The judges and the jurors are officially considered equal but have distinct roles. The judges and jurors tend, in most cases, to agree with each other, though in a few cases, they take different perspectives. Compared to the English model, mixed tribunals are more likely to result in agreement between the judge and the jury. In the German Schöffen model, a trained judge and two lay judges collaborate to determine whether a defendant is guilty. The jurors are considered part of the court, and work with the judge throughout a trial. The jurors are allowed to ask questions of the prosecution and defense during the trial. In France, judges and lay jurors similarly work together, but the number of lay people involved is much larger, ranging from 9 to 12 jurors plus a panel of three professional judges. French jurors are selected at random and work with the judges only during the final deliberations. In a third model of collaborative juries, the court includes jurors with relevant expertise in certain trials. For example, in Croatia, juvenile court cases are required to have jurors with experience in juvenile education, such as teachers. Russia used a mixed tribunal system until 1993, and then converted to an adversarial model that requires juries to answer specific questions about facts, rather than producing a verdict of guilty or not guilty. In the state of Vermont in the United States in certain lower courts the verdict is decided by two elected lay people known as side judges along with the professional judge.

In some systems, minor cases are decided by an individual who does not have legal training. This can be considered a form of jury service in the sense that the verdict is decided by a citizen with no legal training.