#commerce/y10/lspi
Juries §
- A jury is made up of ordinary people, independent of both sides and decide a verdict on the case based from the evidence in a fair manner.
- In a criminal case, a jury consists of 12 people. They must reach a unanimous decision (12/12) or majority (11/12) to decide whether the accused is innocent or guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
- In a civil case, a jury consists of 4-6 people.
- Jury is used in less than 5% of all legal cases.
Responsibilities §
- Listen to all the facts
- Decide what they believe actually happened
- Be fair and impartial
- Deliver a verdict
Hung jury §
- A hung jury is a jury that is unable to reach an agreement on the verdict by the required voting.
Common law §
- The Common Law is the law created by decisions of judges, which act as binding precedents for later decisions.
- Courts are responsible for interpreting and applying the relevant laws to the cases before them.
- If there is no existing relevant law, judges can create a new rule to settle a dispute.
- A record of these decisions will be placed in books called Law Reports so that they can be referred to when needed.
- These decisions are known as legal precedents.