Jury Duty

Please read the article and let us have your comments.

One of our Members, Doris Gibb, raised the issue in October last year of whether or not Paralegals were exempt from Jury Duty. This opened a can of worms. We first took it up with the Law Society who reverted in December along the lines that they had no input to this and suggested we contact the Supreme Court Division which we did. They in turn passed us to the Scottish Courts Division who discussed the position with the Criminal Procedure Division of the Scottish Executive.

They reverted to us in December. The final outcome was that as the Statutes stand at this time Paralegals are not exempt and a reminder is being sent by the Scottish Courts Division to Sheriff Clerks to ensure that Paralegals are not exempted from service on a statutory basis in error. However, a Membership Certificate of the SPA would be acceptable as proof of employment as a Paralegal although any decision on excusal would be a matter for the Sheriff Clerk in each Court jurisdiction in each case taking into account the current circumstances such as number of cases going to trial, number of jurors cited and numbers exempt.

The automatic exemption of Paralegals from jury duty is something which has not previously been considered but due to the increase in the number of Paralegals now working in Scotland it will be taken on board by the Authorities for further consideration in the future.

If you have had any personal experience relating to the issue of exemption from Jury Duty we would like to hear from you.