Sunday, 10 May 2009

Our justice system. Part 1

Hello again,
Tomorrow I begin a scheduled week of jury service. I'm quite looking forward to it, as I haven't been 'selected' before. Everyone who has, recommends to bring a good book.

Having read the instructions there are a couple of idiosyncrasies that are worth mentioning:

1. Payment
A juror gets paid $31 per half day, or $62 a day (plus travel)
Expected times are 9am-5pm, with an hour lunch - giving you a standard 8hr work day
This gives the princely sum of $7.75/hr (or if you only want 7 hours and unpaid lunch, $8.86)

The NZ minimum wage is $12.50...

2. Governor General
You can't be a juror if you are the Governor General.
Fair enough, the representative of the Queen isn't really suitable.

However...

Do they have to mention it on the juror information sheet? There is only one Governor General after all, it should be easy to figure out.

Ergo; either the Governor General is particularly poorly informed; or the Ministry of Justice is a bit obsessive-compulsive.

I forsee the Hon. Sir Anand Satyanand opening his jury summons with a groan, then after reading the information sheet, he high-fives his secretary once he finds he is excused.
Possibly unlikely.

I expect more oddities tomorrow, so there will probably be a Part 2. Don't expect a case report though - justice is blind.

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