Jury Selection / New West Court
 

My mom got picked for jury selection for a trial that starts in December. While she's iffy on actually wanting to do it (my dad is retiring roughly around that time and his company is flying my parents out to the USA for a giant "thank you" party), I'm curious to know if there's any way to find out what specific trial she's been picked for. I've found stuff online for the Victoria court house, but nothing specific for New West.

It will say if it is a criminal case on the jury selection form and the estimated time frame.

She will not know the case until she is selected.

If she has concrete vacation plans (plane tickets, hotel reservations, etc) she should be able to get out of it.

or if she can prove that her work is an essential service, eg. nurse, police officer, fire fighter... and can not do it at risk of missing said work.

Jury selection is basically a cattle call. There will be a large herd of people, and only a handful of those people will be selected, by random drawing. Of those randomly drawn people, they will have an opportunity to explain if and why they cannot participate. If it is a valid reason, they will be excused. If one of the lawyers challenges that person's selection on the jury, they will be excused as well.

Although it varies from province to province, she would be able to opt out if she worked in the criminal justice field (ie police officer, attorney), of the age of 65 or older, or for exigent circumstances. I don't believe your mother has a choice in the matter on whether if she wants to participate or not.
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My dad was selected once but he was out of the country so I wrote a letter explaining the situation and they excused him. I didn't even have to present proof. Just write them a letter... Honestly they pick hundreds of people so they can excuse someone if they have a valid reason.

When I was selected, I had my boss write a letter stating that i couldn't miss work because a certain deadline/deliverable had to be made. They let me off no prob.