3. Trial with assessors, usually in admiralty cases (the assessors being nautical) but rare in other divisions.
4. Trial by an official referee in certain cases involving much detail (R.S.C., 0. 36).
5. Where the parties consent, trial may be had of any case in the king's bench division before a master in chambers.
A speedy trial may be ordered in certain cases (0. 36, r. IA), but the power conferred by this order is sparingly exercised. The parties may be represented in the High Court by counsel or may conduct their case in person. The trial is carried on by stating to the court the pleadings if any and by opening the plaintiff's case. This is followed by the evidence of the witnesses, who are sworn and examined and cross-examined. On the completion of the plaintiff's case and evidence, the defendant's case is stated and evidence adduced in support of it. The plaintiff or his lawyer has, as a rule, the reply or last word unless the defendant has called no evidence. If when the trial is called on the plaintiff appears and the defendant does not, the plaintiff may prove his case (0. 36, r. 31). If the plaintiff does not appear, the defendant may have judgment dismissing the action, and may prove his counterclaim if he has one (0. 36, r. 32). But any judgment by default may be set aside on terms.
At the conclusion the judge sums up the law and facts of the case to the jury and their verdict is returned, or if there is no jury the judge gives judgment stating his conclusion on the law and the facts involved. He then directs that judgment shall be entered as he thinks right (0. 36, r. 39), and a memorandum is endorsed on the judgment pointing out that if it is not obeyed, the defendant will be liable to process of execution (0. 41, r. 5).
Juries.-In England the trial jury (also called petty jury or traverse jury) consists of 12 jurors, except in the county court where the number is eight. Women are now summoned as jurors, but a husband and wife cannot be summoned on the same occa sion. A woman may, however, claim exemption on the ground
that by reason of pregnancy or some other feminine condition or ailment she is or will be unfit to serve. Either party to the suit may apply to the court for an order that the jury shall consist wholly of men or wholly of women. In civil but not in criminal cases the trial may by consent be by fewer than 12 jurors, and the verdict may by consent be that of the majority.
The jurors are selected from the inhabitants of the county, borough or other area for which the court to which they are summoned is commissioned to act. In criminal cases, owing to the rules as to venue and that crime is to be tried in the neigh bourhood where it is committed, the mode of selection involves a certain amount of independent local knowledge on the part of the jurors. Where local prejudice has been aroused for or against the accused, which is likely to affect the chance of a fair trial, the proceedings may be removed to another jurisdiction, and there are a good many offences in which by legislation the accused may be tried where he is caught, irrespective of the place where he is alleged to have broken the law.
Exemptions from juries include members of the legislature and judges, ministers of various denominations, and practising barristers and solicitors, registered medical practitioners and dentists, and officers and soldiers of the regular army. Persons over 6o are exempt but not disqualified. Lists of the jurors are prepared by the overseers in rural parishes and by the town clerks in boroughs, and are submitted to justices for revision. When jurors are required for a civil or criminal trial they are sum moned by the sheriff or, if he cannot act, by the coroner.
For the purpose of civil trials in the superior courts there are two lists of jurors, special and common. The practice of selecting special jurors to try important civil cases appears to have sprung up, without legislative enactment, in the procedure of the courts. The jurors are the judges of fact upon the evidence laid before them. Their province is strictly limited to questions of fact, and within that province they are still further restricted to matters proved by evidence in the course of the trial and in theory must not act upon their own personal knowledge and observation except so far as it proceeds from what is called a "view" of the subject matter of the litigation.