ABSTRACT
In 2007 an ordinary New Zealander, who watched a trial throughout and was highly familiar with the facts of the case, listened to the judge's summing-up. The issue is also recognised by the New Zealand judiciary. As part of addressing that, in 2005 the Chief Justice of New Zealand and the Chief High Court Judge asked me to do some research on the language used in judges' summings-up for juries. The earlier New Zealand juries research had found that, although jurors stated that they "generally" found summings-up clear, "fairly fundamental misunderstandings of the law" or uncertainty existed among them. The tone of the summing-up is serious, considered and formal, albeit that judges occasionally attempt to engage juries through jokes and laughter. A linguistic description of the language used in summings-up, crafted from the angle of complexity and empirically based, would be an essential platform for that training.
