The Law Society of Western Australia wants to push through a raft of changes to make juries more representative of the population. This will includes increasing the maximum age of jurors, and reducing the circumstances in which people can be excused from jury duty.
The proposals are contained in the Juries Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 which is currently before WA Parliament. These include raising the age limit from 65 to 75 years old, and tightening the rules which currently seem to allow most people to be excused from duty. The changes have been prompted by statistics showing that 64% of those called up for duty in 2009-2010 managed to find excuses to avoid it, according to a report in Lawyers Weekly.
The WA Law Society president is concerned that juries are becoming "increasingly unrepresentative due to the exclusion of many occupations and 'as of right' excuses for health professionals, emergency workers and full-time carers".
So it looks like people are going to have to come up with more ingenious excuses now advanced age and medical emergencies are now longer enough to avoid jury duty. Making like 30 Rock's Tina Fey - turning up in a Star Wars outfit with a porn stash - may now be the best bet.
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The proposals are contained in the Juries Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 which is currently before WA Parliament. These include raising the age limit from 65 to 75 years old, and tightening the rules which currently seem to allow most people to be excused from duty. The changes have been prompted by statistics showing that 64% of those called up for duty in 2009-2010 managed to find excuses to avoid it, according to a report in Lawyers Weekly.
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Attempting to avoid jury service yesterday |
The WA Law Society president is concerned that juries are becoming "increasingly unrepresentative due to the exclusion of many occupations and 'as of right' excuses for health professionals, emergency workers and full-time carers".
So it looks like people are going to have to come up with more ingenious excuses now advanced age and medical emergencies are now longer enough to avoid jury duty. Making like 30 Rock's Tina Fey - turning up in a Star Wars outfit with a porn stash - may now be the best bet.