Jury Empanelment: Consultation Paper (html)

Posted on October 1, 2013

Glossary

Accused	Person charged with a criminal offence.
Arraignment	The point in a trial when an accused is required to answer the charges made against him or her.
Ballot	The random selection of prospective jurors by drawing cards out of a box.
Challenge for cause	A challenge that is justified on the grounds that the prospective juror is not eligible to serve on the jury or is not impartial. Both the accused and the prosecution have an unlimited number of challenges for cause. The trial judge decides whether or not to uphold the challenge.
Crown	A representative of the Office of Public Prosecutions responsible for prosecuting indictable offences.
Crown right to stand aside	A challenge made by the Crown to exclude a prospective juror from the jury.
Director of Public Prosecutions	The Director of Public Prosecutions makes decisions about whether to prosecute serious criminal matters in the Supreme Court and County Court. The Director of Public Prosecutions is independent of government.
Discharge a juror	To release a juror from the jury after the jury has been sworn in.
Empanelment of the jury/Empanelling the jury	The process of selecting the jury for a trial.
Excuse	A reason for not being able to attend for jury service or to sit on the jury for a particular case.
Indictable offences	Serious crimes which attract higher maximum penalties, usually triable before a judge and a jury.
Juries Commissioner’s Office (JCO)	The office responsible for jury administration in Victoria.
Juror	A member of the jury.
Jury	The group of jurors selected to make findings of fact in criminal matters and findings of fault in civil matters. The jury is randomly selected from the jury panel.
Jury panel	The group of prospective jurors from which the selection of the jury is made. The jury panel is randomly selected from the jury pool.
Jury pool	The group of prospective jurors from which the jury panel is randomly selected. Jury pool members attend for jury service in response to a summons.
Order	A direction by a court or tribunal that is final and binding unless overturned on appeal.
Peremptory challenge	A challenge made by a party to a prospective juror to exclude them from the jury. A party is not required to provide a reason for making a peremptory challenge.
Plea	An accused’s answer to a charge of an offence, which usually takes the form of ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’.
Prospective juror	A person who has been summoned to attend for jury service, but not yet selected for a jury.
Summons for jury service	Notification by the JCO to a person that they are required to attend for jury service.
Victorian Parliament Law Reform Committee (Law Reform Committee)	A committee of government and non-government members of the Victorian Parliament, established to consider issues of law reform referred to it by the Victorian Government.
Voir dire	A questioning process used in some jurisdictions of the United States and elsewhere to assess the values and sympathies of prospective jurors.