Thoughts on Civil Juries

My daughter moved to New Zealand last August and we are down visiting her. In most respects, this is an incredible place. The people are very laid back and happy to be alive. And for good reason – it is like living in a post card. Note that I said in most respects – juries in civil trials down here have just about vanished. Though the system provides for juries in civil trials, it is not hard for a judge to do an end run:

Civil jury trials have, for all practical purposes, been done away with in New Zealand. The last known case of trial by jury was Menzies v Attorney General (CIV2002 418 00005) in late 2004. The shift away from juries has occurred without any law change. Rather, it has evolved quietly, by judicial fiat. It is now routine for judges to simply rule it is ‘inconvenient’ to have a jury trial or ambiguously – if not spuriously – claim that civil cases are too complicated for juries, or that the law is inextricably linked to the factual issues long accepted in law as suitable for a jury determination.

I thought of this yesterday whilst (my new favorite word) I drank my coffee and read the local paper. Meg Bourke, from the South Island, is dying of ovarian cancer. Her life insurance carrier has denied coverage for her husband’s claim for benefits based on its claim that she made misrepresentations on her original application for coverage. Her story is heart breaking. Her sin – she did not tell them that she had previously been prescribed anti-depressants (at age 14 after she was sexually abused) Never mind that Meg is now 59 and was never diagnosed or treated for depression. And never mind that depression has nothing to do with ovarian cancer.

The family recently settled with her insurance carrier for a “limited payout” so that she could focus on spending her last days with her family. Sadly this also happens here in the U.S. I could not help but wonder, however, how much that “limited payout” was influenced by the fact that this insurance company knew that they would not have to face a jury of Meg’s peers. Our jury system is the backbone of the Democracy – let’s give it the respect that it deserves.