British legal system goes automatic for the people

The British legal system of trial by jury will receive a boost as automated selection procedures are rolled out across the country in the next two months.

This week, six Crown courts will stop using pieces of card to allocate jurors to trials, and will instead use a system that can be relied upon to select jurors impartially and process data about them.

Harrow Crown Court went live with the system yesterday, following pilot schemes in Bradford and Woolwich conducted over the past year.

Harrow court manager, Stuart Hill, said: "We've had no problems with the new system so far. Our previous system only held personal details of jury members, but this covers a far greater range of services."

At the moment, jury officers shuffle cards with people's names on to allocate them to the different trials. But the new systems generate juries at random and store detailed information on each trial and the payment procedures for jurors.

Centrally, jurors have been selected automatically from the electoral roll for years. But regional court systems will now be able to interact with the Central Summoning Bureau, based in Blackfriars, London, so they can draw a more detailed profile of prospective jurors.

Crown court administration staff have received three days' training in how to use the new systems.

The Lord Chancellor's Department was unavailable to comment on the success of the pilot trials. It aims to complete a national roll-out of the new systems by 20 November, 2000.