Young people brought up with the Internet and are not used to listening for long periods might not make good jurors, screens will have to be developed for them to digest the information. The present system of witness speak and answer questions, counsel speak and address the jury, judges speak and give directions will not be acceptable in the future.

Our jury system now depends on 12 or seven good men and women coming to court and listening to the case, sometimes for many weeks. Orality is the crucial ingredient of the adversarial system.

I can envisage in the not-too-distant future jurors going online with a BlackBerry device in defiance of a judge's direction to make private enquiry into a case, using the Internet, causing a conviction to be quashed.

We need to examine our court system and make it adaptable for the future.

I am etc.,

Frederick Hamaty

Attorney-at-law

Westmoreland