Four potential jurors who did not turn up for a full week's jury service have been reprimanded in the Dunedin District Court.
All four went to court last week as part of the pool of potential jurors on the first day of jury trials.
But they failed to return for possible selection for another trial later in the week and offered no excuse to the court for their absence.
Yesterday, they had to report to Judge Paul Kellar in the Dunedin District Court to explain why.
The judge told them they could each be fined up to $1000 if they had been summonsed to attend and failed, without reasonable excuse, to do so.
He said the jury system had existed since the 12th century and, in New Zealand, the right to be tried by a jury had been in place since 1841.
It was seen as a fundamental right that a person accused of a crime punishable by three months' imprisonment or more was entitled to be tried by a jury.
"If jurors fail to make themselves available for selection, that right is undermined," he said.
He said his experience was that people who served on juries felt they were making a contribution to the community.
All four said their failure to return was due to misunderstandings, with three of them wrongly assuming they were not required after missing selection on the first day.
The fourth person said he had a special-needs child and there had been a misunderstanding about child-care arrangements.
Judge Kellar decided not to fine any of the four.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said about 67,000 people summonsed for jury service failed to report to the court last year.
Jury service normally lasts a week.
In most courts, including Dunedin, there is a jury answerphone service updated daily to inform jurors when they are next required for a ballot.
