Jury - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition jury

Definition :

Jury [fr. jurata, Lat.; jure, Fr.], a number of persons sworn to deliver a verdict upon evidence delivered to them touching the issue.

Trial by jury may be traced to the earliest Anglo-Saxon times. One of the judicial customs of the Saxons was that a man might be cleared of an accusation of certain crimes, if an appointed number of persons (juratores, or more properly compurgatores) came forward and swore to a veredictum, that they believed him innocent. It is remarkable that for accusations of any consequence among the Saxons on the continent, twelve juratores was the number required for an acquittal. Similar customs may be observed in the laws of Athens and Rome, where dikaotai and judices answer to jurors, an of the continental Angli and Frisiones, though the number of jurors varied.

See, as to the introduction and growth of trial by jury in England, Forsyth's History of Trial by Jury; and for comments on and proposed amendments of the law, see Erle's Jury Laws and their Amendment, published by Stevens & Sons in 1882.

The procedure relating to trials by jury was amended by (English) Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1933. In Hope v. Great Western Railway Co., (1937) 2 KB 130, the Court of Appeal held that trial by jury upon application of a party under s. 6 of the Act was a matter in the discretion of a court or judge.

Qualification.--The property qualification of jurors is fixed by the (English) County Juries Act, 1825 (6 Geo. 4, c. 50), s. 1, for common jurors, at 10l. a year freehold, or 20l. a year leasehold, or assessment to the poor-rate or house-duty for a house of 30l. a year in Middlesex and 20l. a year in other counties (except the county of London, the qualification for which is the same as for Middlesex); the qualification for a special jury, by s. 31 of the same Act, and the (English) Jurors Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 77), s. 6, is having those property qualifications and being also legally entitled to be called an esquire, or being a person of higher degree, or being a banker or merchant, or occupying a house of a certain rateable value. Until the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act, 1919, women were disqualified at common law from acting as jurors except in the case of a Jury of Matrons (q.v.). Now the qualifications are the same for each sex.

Certain persons, as aliens, felons, lunatics, blind and deaf persons, are disqualified. Exemption from service may be claimed by peers, M.P.'s, clergy-men, ministers and priests, judges, magistrates, barristers and solicitors in actual practice, notaries public, officers of both Houses of Parliament, of the Supreme Court, and of metropolitan magistrates, clerks of the peace, coroners and deputies, sheriffs' officers and servants, solicitors' managing clerks, police, J.P.'s within their own jurisdiction, mem-bers of corporations, etc., governors of prisons, superintendents of asylums, registered medical practitioners, chemists, dentists, officers and members of H.M. forces, servants of Post Office, Customs, and Inland Revenue, H.M. Household, Masters of Trinity House and members of the Mersey Docks and Larbour Board and the Port of London Authority, and pilots. Application should be made for exemption to the registration officer under the (English) Juries Act, 1922.

Special jurors are summoned to try the more important or difficult jury cases in the King's Bench Division.

Grand jury, abolished (except in a few cases) by the (English) Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1933 (23 & 24 Geo. 5, c. 36), is summoned by the sheriff of every county for every commission of over and terminal and general gaol delivery. The grand jury is instructed in the Articles of their inquiry by the presiding judge. They sit in private, and receive indictments inquiring, upon their oaths, whether there be sufficient cause shown by the evidence of the prosecution to call upon the accused persons to answer before a petty jury. See GRAND JURY.

A coroner's jury may consist of any number, not less than seven or more than eleven. Juries in all criminal trials and civil trials in the superior courts, and in writs of inquiry, consist of twelve men, neither more nor less. Juries in county courts consist of eight. (County Courts Act, 1934, s. 93)

Before the Act of 1870 there was an old rule in criminal cases against allowing jurors food, drink, or fire after the summing up, but now they are allowed reasonable refreshment at their own expense. Except on a trial of murder, treason or treason-felony, juries may separate in the same way as on a trial for misdemeanour, i.e., to their own homes, being charged not to converse with any person on the subject of the trial.

Remuneration.--There is no statutory remuneration for common jurors in the High Court; s. 22 of the Act of 1870, which fixed a remuneration of ten shillings a day for common jurors, and a guinea a day for special jurors, was repealed by 34 Vict. c. 2. Special jurors get a guinea a cause by s. 34 of the (English) County Juries Act, 1825. In the county courts jurors get a shilling apiece. In some cases a juror gets a customary allowance for trying causes, but in no case for trying prisoners.

An alien is no longer entitled to be tried by a jury de medietate lingu'; see British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, 1914, s. 18. See GRAND JURY; SPECIAL JURY; TRIAL; INQUIRY, WRIT OF; Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Juries'; as to effect of wrong service of a juror, see IDEM SONANS.

In Scotland, the jury in a civil case numbers twelve. Actions properly for damages, declarations of rights of way, and reductions of wills on the ground of facility or essential error, are the more important types of cases tried by jury. The jury in criminal cases numbers fifteen