What is a jury?
Contents
What is a jury?
Who gets to be on a jury?
What happens once you've been summoned for jury service?
How to respond to a summons (letter) to be on a jury?
Additional information
Additional resources
What is a jury?
A jury is a group of 12 people from the community that have been summoned to a court to take part in a trial. The jury hears the evidence, decides on the facts and then decides if the defendant (the accused person) is guilty or not guilty. The judge then decides on the sentence (the penalty).
Who gets to be on a jury?
You can be on jury service if you are 18 or older and have enrolled to vote. You will be randomly selected from the Electoral Roll for jury service.
What happens once you've been summoned for jury service?
Once you've been summoned you will receive a letter and a form that tells you to come to a court for jury service. The letter will tell you the date, time and the court you should come to. The court might be a District or High Court near to where you live.
You then need to send the form back to the court or take it there in person.
How to respond to a summons (letter) to be on a jury?
See Respond to a jury summons to find out how to respond to a summons to be on a jury. This includes information on what to do if you can't attend jury service.
Additional information
- You must come to the court on that day unless you get a letter or email from the court before the court date telling you that you have been excused from jury service.
- Every year about 130,000 New Zealanders are asked to do jury service.
- Even though you have been called for jury service you might not be selected to be on the jury for the trial. On the first day of the trial the 12 jurors are chosen from a larger group of people who have been called for jury service.