Municipal Corporations Act 1882

186Provisions as to juries in boroughs.

(1)Every burgess of a borough having a separate court of quarter sessions or a borough civil court shall, unless by law exempt or disqualified, be qualified and liable to serve on grand juries in the borough, and on juries for the trial of issues joined in either of those courts.

(2)The clerk of the peace shall give public notice of the time and place of holding the court of quarter sessions ten days at least before the holding thereof, and shall, seven days at least before the holding thereof, summon a sufficient number of persons, qualified and liable, to serve as grand jurors at the sessions.

(3)The clerk of the peace and registrar of the borough civil court respectively shall also summon a sufficient number of persons, qualified and liable, to serve as jurors at every such sessions, and at the holding of every such civil court for the trial of causes, if there is any cause then to be tried.

(4)The summons may be made by showing to the person to be summoned, or, if he is absent from his usual place of abode, by leaving with some person therein inhabiting a notice containing its substance, and signed by the clerk of the peace or registrar, as the case may be.

(5)The clerk of the peace and registrar shall make out lists containing the surnames and other names, abodes, and descriptions of the persons summoned by them respectively.

(6)No person shall be summoned under this section to serve as a juror more than once in any year, unless every person qualified and liable so to serve has been already summoned once in that year.

(7)If any person, having been duly summoned under this section, fails to attend according to the summons, or, being thrice called, does not answer to his name, or after his appearance wilfully withdraws himself from the court, he shall (unless some reasonable excuse is proved by him to the satisfaction of the court), be liable to pay a fine of such amount as the court thinks fit.

(8)If the person on whom any such fine is imposed refuses to pay it to the person authorized by the court to receive it, the court may, then or at the next sitting, by order of the court signed by the clerk of the peace or registrar, cause to be levied, by distress and sale of the goods of the person on whom the fine is imposed, the fine and the reasonable charges of the distress and sale.

(9)Nothing in this Act shall affect the [33 & 34 Vict. c. 77.] Juries Act, 1870.