Reforms are needed to the island’s jury system to address the shrinking pool of potential jurors, residents heard.

Speaking at the first in a planned series of meetings to discuss proposals being considered, Kim Wilkerson, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, said that courts are facing increased challenges in empanelling jurors.

She added that some members of the public have also expressed concerns about verdicts delivered by juries in the courts.

Ms Wilkerson said: “The work of the jury is very, very important, and the problems that we have been having in Bermuda are an ageing population and the closeness of our community.

“There is one degree of separation between everyone. People have a reticence to serve on a jury.

“We really wanted to open conversations with members of the community about what those reservations are, how we can make it better and to really take on board views of every sector that we could and citizens up and down the country.”

Ms Wilkerson was joined by representatives from the Sandys Parish Council and Dennis Lister III, the Junior Minister of Justice, on Thursday night at Somerset Cricket Club.

She said that the Government contacted parish councils to host the meetings with the intention of sparking more intimate conversations about reform.

The minister said: “Sometimes we do a big town hall and people feel like they are being talked at, and it’s very important with this topic that we have a more intimate setting.

“The idea is that we gather in smaller groups in the communities and have conversations about what this might mean.”

Recently released consultation documents highlighted a raft of changes being considered including increasing the maximum age of jurors from 70 to 75, increasing the compensation provided for jury members and reducing the number of jurors required to sit on a jury.

Ms Wilkerson said that while larger nations like the US and Britain have populations that can accommodate larger juries, many smaller jurisdictions like the Turks & Caicos Islands have adopted smaller juries for all but the most serious cases.

She noted that for self-employed people, serving on a jury can cause significant financial stress, while the temporary loss of an employee for jury duty can carry repercussions for some employers.

Among the proposals that sparked discussion at the meeting was the concept of allowing spouses of Bermudians, PRC holders, BOTC residents and long-term work permit holders to serve as jurors.

While attendees said such a measure could cause pushback from some seeking a jury of their peers, Ms Wilkerson suggested that the opposite could be true if the defendant is not Bermudian.

She said: “They might argue that if a PRC holder is the defendant in a case, do they get a jury of their peers if it’s not a diverse jury.”

Another topic of discussion was allowing jury-only trials, which Ms Wilkerson said could be an option for highly technical cases involving cybercrime.

While she said that most of the more technically complicated cases before the courts are civil cases, it is important to consider what sorts of crimes could become prevalent in the future.

She said: “It would definitely require constitutional change. It’s not something that we are putting at the top of the list, but it’s fair for consideration. It’s good to talk about.”

Other measures proposed to update the legislation included reforms to allow people with disabilities to serve with technological assistance, along with replacing outdated terms used in legislation to describe them.

Attendees also discussed the need to increase awareness of what jury duty involves, noting the stress that can accompany being called to serve for the first time.

Online consultation on the proposals is set to run until December 31 through forum.gov.bm.