New South Wales Consolidated Acts

JURY ACT 1977 - SECT 73

73 Verdict not invalidated in certain cases

(1) The verdict of a jury shall not be affected or invalidated by reason only:

(a) that any juror was, after being required by summons to attend for jury service, mistakenly or irregularly empanelled, whether because the juror was disqualified from serving, or was ineligible to serve, as a juror or was otherwise not returned and selected in accordance with this Act, or

Note: For example, this paragraph prevents the verdict of a jury from being invalid if, as in R v Brown & Tran[2004] NSWCCA 324 , a juror who received a jury summons reported for service a day early and was mistakenly empanelled.

(a1) that any juror became disqualified from serving or ineligible to serve as a juror in the course of the trial or coronial inquest, or

(b) of any omission, error or irregularity with respect to any supplementary jury roll, jury roll, card or summons prepared or issued for the purposes of this Act, or

(c) that any juror was misnamed or misdescribed (where there is no question as to the juror’s identity).

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply:

(a) in respect of a juror if the juror impersonated, or is suspected of impersonating, another person, or

(b) if there is evidence of any other attempt to deliberately manipulate the composition of the jury.