Madam, – I spent a week attending for jury duty in the Dublin Circuit Court and found wasteful aspects in the process.
About 250 people showed up on Monday morning for the panel and these were whittled down as they were called up by random selection for actual duty in two separate courts. It took until 11.30am for the remainder to be sent away. The process was repeated each following day. By Thursday there was about 125 left who were sent away for good as there was no sitting on Friday. Their week’s duty was completed.
The process has to be seen to be fair and integral, but perhaps modern technology could ensure more efficient use of resources? The country cannot afford to have so many people out of production for such periods.
The court could meet at 8am each day to randomly select the juries for that day. The results could be available immediately on the court website, prospective jurors could check their position and get into the courts by 10.30am if selected.
Those without internet access could check their status by calling a telephone number, keying in a code and getting an automatic response. Others less technologically minded would have to turn up, as currently.
There would have to be plenty of slack in the system to allow for mishaps, but it would still be more efficient than the present system, which is built for a much earlier era and is over-specified. – Yours, etc,