Jury Duty - Is it time to review compensation rates?

March 01, 2018, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

Almost everyone will in their lifetime be called to serve on a jury in Canada. Some individuals are called repeatedly, others never. Once receive a notice to report for jury duty you must respond to it. A compelling reason must exist for you to be excused from reporting for duty. These reasons can include being hospitalized, infirm, out of the country for an extended period, or attending school far from the court house. If you have attended a jury selection in the previous three years you are excused. Firefighters, police officers, doctors, and people with certain criminal offences are excluded from serving.

Jury duty is one of our few required civic duties and the rules around it are clear cut. According to the Ministry of the Attorney General approximately 500,000 questionnaires are mailed out annually in the province to prospective jurors. Once the application is completed and returned, eligible citizens can chosen at random to receive a ‘summons to jury duty’. The government has a web pages devoted to the information.

Once you are served the summons you must attend at the time and date shown on the summons. Usually between 50-300 people are summoned at once to a specific courthouse. You gather and are called into a courtroom so that all parties can see the prospective jurors. If you aren’t selected that day, you may be assigned to another panel on the same day or asked to return the following day.

According to the website “Panel members are given the opportunity to let the judge know of any difficulties they may experience in attending court on the date of their summons because of employment, schooling or a scheduled vacation. The judge may defer the panel member’s service to a later date, excuse the panel member or require them to serve on the jury. Whether selected for jury duty or excused, panel members are ineligible for jury duty for the next three years.”

None of this time is paid. Employers must give the time off to people called to jury duty but are not required to pay them. Travel costs are only paid for people living outside the municipality. No food, hotel, or daycare is compensated for. Many individuals are excused from jury duty based on economic need. The system raises several questions, including do juries represent the community, or only parts of the community?

If you are selected to sit through a trial the first ten days of service are entirely unpaid. Jurors get $40/day for days 11-49 and $100 a day following that time. Presumable at day 50 of a trial, jurors have sacrificed 10 weeks of regular earnings which is a very considerable sum.

It may well be time for the government of Ontario to review these policies. Individuals should not be enriching themselves by serving on juries, but they should not be left in economic hardship either. It may be right to look at Quebec’s model where jurors are paid $103/day for each day they serve. The rate increases to $160 after 56 days. Travel, parking, meals and accommodation expenses are paid. Judges may decide on allowances for child care on an individual basis as well.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

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