Misinformation alert

We’ve been made aware of an unofficial website and jury guide online that contains inaccurate information about jury duty in Ontario.

Members of the public should continue to refer to this page and official Ontario government websites for reliable and up-to-date information regarding jury duty.

Overview

A jury is a group of people randomly selected to make decisions at a trial in a court of law. A judge guides a jury through a trial by explaining the law and legal terms. You don’t need to know anything about the law to serve on a jury.

If you are selected, it is your civic duty to serve as a juror if you are:

  • an Ontario resident
  • a Canadian citizen
  • 18 years of age and older

Contact the courthouse listed on your summons if you have questions.

What to do if you receive one of these documents

Select which document you received to find more information and learn about next steps.

Mandatory Jury Eligibility Form

This questionnaire is used to determine whether you are eligible to serve on a jury.

Jury summons

This is an official notice requiring you to attend jury selection at a courthouse on a specific date, time and location.

Coroner’s Inquest

This is a notice from the Office of the Chief Coroner requesting you attend jury selection related to a coroner’s inquest.

How the jury selection process works

These are the 5 main steps to the jury section process in Ontario.

1. Mandatory Jury Eligibility Form

Each year, we mail the Mandatory Jury Eligibility Form (questionnaire) to over 800,000 people living in Ontario to determine if they are eligible for jury duty. If you received the jury questionnaire, you can complete it online or request a paper form.

If you have any questions about answering specific questions on the questionnaire, you can find additional information here.

2. Receive a jury summons

Jury Summons — delivery methods

To ensure jury summonses are delivered promptly due to previous mail delivery interruptions, we are using the 3 following methods based on information provided on the Mandatory Jury Eligibility Form:

  • Mail: all jury summonses are being delivered via regular mail.
  • Emails: jury summonses will also be delivered via email. Emails containing the summons will be sent from no_reply@ontariojury.ca.
  • Telephone notification: if no email address is available, an automated outbound phone call will be delivered.

People who submit the questionnaire and qualify to serve as a juror may receive a letter in the mail (a summons) the following year. This jury summons letter will ask you to go to an Ontario courthouse to participate in the jury selection process.

Being summoned to jury duty does not mean you will be selected to be part of a jury.

3. Stay up-to-date on your jury duty

After you are summoned, sign up for digital notifications to get important updates about your jury duty. If you do not sign up, court staff will call or send you a letter with these updates.

4. Random selection

At the location provided on your jury summons letter, people are randomly selected to participate on a jury. Some people who are not selected may be asked to come back the next day, or they may be dismissed.

5. Selected to be a juror

If you are selected to be a juror, a judge will provide you with information about what to do next.

Contact the Provincial Jury Centre

If you need assistance regarding the questionnaire or a summons, please contact the Provincial Jury Centre:

Contact the courthouse

If you have been summoned and need to contact the courthouse, their contact information is located in the top-left corner of your summons. You can also find their information using the link below.

When contacting the courthouse, please include both your juror number and panel number.