Payment and support to help you attend jury service

You’ll receive a payment for doing jury service. You’ll also be paid back for some of the costs of attending.

On this page:

Payment for attending jury service

You’ll be paid weekly for attending jury service for every half day you spend at court. You’ll only be paid for time you’ve spent at court. This includes time you spend at court waiting to find out if you’ll be selected to be on a jury. The payment is to acknowledge and thank you for your service. It’s not meant to replace your wage or salary.

	First 5 days you attend court	6th and subsequent days you attend court
For each half day	$31	$40
If you’re at court between 6pm and 9pm (this is your payment for the whole day)	$89	$114
If you’re at court after 9pm (this is your payment for the whole day)	$127	$163

If you think that attending jury service will result in serious financial hardship, you can apply to the court for a higher payment. The court will give you a form that you’ll need to complete and send back, including proof of financial hardship. The court may contact you for more information before making a decision on your application.

Bank account details

Make sure you put your bank account number on your juror summons letter. Providing your bank account details means you’ll be paid back quickly for your juror fees and any travel and childcare costs.

If you’re receiving a benefit

Your Work & Income benefit might be affected by your jury service payment. You should contact Work & Income for more information.

Work & Income(external link)

Expenses you can claim

The court will help pay for some of your costs for attending jury service.

If you use your own vehicle to get to jury service, the court will pay you for your mileage. This is automatically calculated at a rate of 38 cents for each kilometre between your home address and the court.
The court doesn’t provide car parking. If you have to pay for parking, the court will pay you back. You’ll need to give the court a receipt for each day you attend court. For details about parking locations, see the specific court pages in the section Check if you need to attend.
For car parking reimbursements, when using pay and display, there will be a pop up message on the screen with a 4 digit code. You can use this code to claim back the cost of your parking online by going to my-receipt.com. Enter your 4 digit number and follow the instructions.
www.my-receipt.com(external link)
The court will pay you back if you need to take public transport to get to jury service. You don’t need to provide a receipt for public transport.
If you can’t get to court any other way, the court may pay for a taxi but you’ll need to ask the court first.
You can claim up to $80 each day, per child, for professional childcare and up to $40 each day, per child, for childcare help from a family or whānau member, friend or neighbour.

To claim these expenses:

Fill in the appropriate form:

All District Courts:
Juror expense claim form - DC [PDF, 339 KB]

Auckland High Court:
Juror expense claim form - Auckland HC [PDF, 327 KB]

Christchurch High Court:
Juror expense claim form - Christchurch HC [PDF, 459 KB]

Wellington High Court:
Juror expense claim form - Wellington HC [PDF, 469 KB]

2. You’ll need to give the court proof, such as:

parking receipts
an invoice or GST receipt from a professional childcare service
a note for personal childcare that states who took care of your children and how much you paid them, if a family or whānau member, friend or neighbour looked after them.

Court staff will collect your claim form at the end of each week. If your jury trial takes longer than one week, You’ll need to fill out a separate claim form for each week of your jury service.

If you’re not selected to sit on a jury, you’ll still get paid for your time. Give your completed claim form and proof of expenses to court staff.

When you’ll get paid

The court will pay back your expenses within two weeks of you giving the court your claim form. You’ll be paid directly into your bank account. Make sure you tell the court if your address has changed.

If you need a breakdown of each cost the court has paid you for, you’ll need to email the court to ask for this.

Disability support

If you have a disability, you can still serve on a jury. Contact the court ahead of time to discuss what support you might need to attend.

If you require hearing assistance the court can provide this. Please make sure you bring either: headphones/earphones with a standard 3.5mm jack or a headphone capable hearing aid/s.

Court staff will be able to tell you what arrangements can be made in the specific court you’ll be doing your jury service.