The Hidden Toll of Jury Service: Mental Health Impacts

The mental health impacts of serving on a jury can be profound and long-lasting, with many jurors exposed to traumatic evidence without adequate support or training. As the justice system continues to evolve, there is growing concern about the toll that jury service can take on individuals.

Mark Farrant, a Canadian juror who served on a five-month murder trial in 2014, recalls the experience vividly. "I was having nightmares, I was having difficulty sleeping, I was constantly having flashbacks," he said. "You can't get your mind off it, and you're at home trying to play with your kids and give your spouse attention, and all you're thinking about is that case."

Farrant was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and believes he was not adequately prepared to contend with the evidence he witnessed. "I didn't think about juror mental health … [it] was overshadowed by, 'How am I going to do my job, how am I going to make ends meet?'" he said.

Juror Mental Health Support

In Australia, thousands of people are called upon each year to serve as jurors in courts. Murdoch University law and criminology lecturer Jane Astill-Owen, who writes about jury trauma, notes that jurors are exposed to the risk of vicarious or secondary trauma, especially in cases involving sexual assault or extreme violence.

"[Jurors are] suddenly confronted with this type of material with no warning and assuming very little training in their private life before that point," Astill-Owen said. "We tend to downplay the impact that this potentially traumatic material might have on someone's ability actually to focus on the evidence and make an impartial decision."

Astill-Owen suggests that employing court-appointed facilitators or psychologists who could be available to jurors during a trial, and a pre-trial information session about vicarious trauma, could help mitigate the risks. Most jurisdictions offer three to six free counselling sessions after a trial, but Astill-Owen believes more consideration should be given to reducing graphic evidence where possible.

Counselling and Support Services

NSW Sheriff Tracey Hall, who manages the state's jurors, says there is ample support available to jurors. "We are covering our duty of care for jurors," she said. "There are numerous touch points for them [jurors] to be able to say 'I'm not up for this' and be excused, and that does happen regularly."

However, fewer than 1 per cent of jurors who served in NSW between April 2025 and June 2026 took up the offer of three initial counselling sessions after a trial.

Future Directions

University of Sydney law professor Arlie Loughnan notes that while there have been no specific instances where jury mental health has been at the centre of a decision to grant a judge-alone trial, it makes sense to consider it. "Part of that is working out how best to utilise our jury system and recognising the importance of that jury system," Professor Loughnan said.

The topic of juror mental health has continued to gain traction over the past decade, with a growing recognition of the need for improved support and training for jurors.