Juries are a composition of 12 members called from the community at random from the electorate role. They are summoned upon to hear evidence presented at a trial regarding criminal accusations. After due reflection, the jury brings forth a unanimous verdict of either "guilty" or "not guilty". Presently, juries are becoming rare as less criminal and civil cases now oblige "trial by jury". The question at hand trivializes whether the jury still remains a significant part of civic participation in our justice system or has the judicial method outlived its expediency? It appears apparently so. .
Juries play a considerable role within criminal and civil cases. Civil law concerns arguments between organizations and/or individuals, whereas criminal law engages the conviction of an offence. The severities of punishments are higher for criminal cases than civil cases, as the individual has broken the law and consequently will face imprisonment and/or a fine.
Within civil cases, juries are becoming less necessitated as they appear to be timely, expensive and cause disruptions in prompt hearings. In the process of jury selection, many aspects of the process take significant time. Such hassle include the summoning of citizens to jury duty via mail & the paperwork in handling of exemptions of jury duty. This can be viewed as an expense time-wise, and economically, in the sense that in the time taken to handle one case, at the same time, another case could have been completed. With hearings dealing with civil matters, the judge is required to explain to the jury the .
Nevertheless, juries still play a significant and substantial role in criminal cases. As a party of twelve, the committee have the opportunity to determine facts based upon the evidence presented and establishing or abolishing the guilt decree. This is to eradicate the personal biases that may come if the verdict were to be determined by one individual.
