Jury duty reforms, including pay hike, coming

Barbados’ $10-a-day jury duty pay, unchanged for decades, could finally rise as the government moves to overhaul outdated rules in the Juries Act.

Attorney General Dale Marshall told Parliament on Friday that the current payment was inadequate for jurors sitting through trials that can last for weeks.

Noting that bus fare alone is $7, he said, “You can’t feed yourself on $3 a day. It is important that we increase the fee so people are not out of pocket when they serve in this way.”

Marshall noted that jury service is a civic duty that should not leave people financially worse off.

The revised legislation will also scrap the over 50-year-old requirement that jurors must own property or meet a minimum income threshold to qualify.

Marshall called the provision “anachronistic” and said it had unfairly restricted the pool of eligible jurors, forcing the same people to be called repeatedly.

One company, he noted, had seven employees summoned between January and April last year, including one who served for 94 days.

“We are going to be selecting a larger number of individuals to serve so we can eliminate these cases where people are on jury duty over and over,” he said.

Other changes include increasing the maximum deliberation period from three to five hours to give juries more time to assess complex evidence, and permitting the “joinder” of related offences in a single trial to spare victims and witnesses from having to testify multiple times.

Marshall said the reforms follow consultation with the criminal bench, who want the legislation in place before the new legal year.

He stressed, however, that judge-alone trials will remain available upon consent.

“If nobody wants to do jury duty, then we can do judge-alone trials for everything,” he said.

“But unfortunately, judge-alone trials are by consent only. If an accused says he wants a jury trial, he must be able to get one.” (SM)