PLANNED LAW CHANGE TO IMPROVE JURY SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT

The Government is making further improvements to the way juries are selected and managed with new legislation currently before Parliament, the newly appointed Minister for Courts Wyatt Creech said today.

The Juries Amendment Bill is being read a second time in Parliament today.

"The Bill is designed to make the jury selection process a lot more efficient and more user friendly for potential jurors.

"Serving on a jury is a duty that New Zealanders take very seriously. We want to make sure that people are not faced with cumbersome processes when going through the jury selection process," Mr Creech said.

The planned law change will result in the compilation of more up-to-date jury lists during the year. This will mean that fewer summonses for jury service are sent to people who have, for instance, moved or died.

The jury lists will also be centralised and computerised.

"Currently most courts still manually select jury panels by drawing cards out of a barrel. Where possible we want to modernise this process.

"The Bill will allow the phased introduction of randomly selecting jury panels via the computer system," Mr Creech said.

Mr Creech said the planned law change will also make the jury summons form easier to use and follow.