Widening the jury pool: Consultation

The Northern Ireland Court Service on 29 May 2008, published the above document for a fourteen-week period of public consultation. The document is available below.

The subject of the consultation is the proposal that the pool of people eligible for jury service should be widened in order that juries can be more truly representative of society, thereby improving confidence in the justice system as a whole. In summary, this would be achieved by changing the law so that no-one would be automatically ineligible for, or excusable from, jury service simply because of their job. A new system of discretionary deferral and excusal, applicable to everyone, would be introduced.  The paper invites Consultees views on specific aspects of the proposals.

Consultation Paper

The closing date for receipt of comments on the Widening the Jury Pool has now closed.