You can become a juror in a Norwegian district court without legal training and without a Norwegian passport. domstolloven § 70 requires Norwegian or Nordic citizenship or three years of registered residence in Norway. You report your interest to your municipality, not to the court.
Who can become a juror in Norway?
The requirements are set out in domstolloven § 70. You must meet all of these points:
- be over 21 years old and under 70 years old at the start of the selection period
- not be deprived of the right to vote in public matters
- not be under public debt negotiation, bankruptcy proceedings or in bankruptcy quarantine
- be registered in the Folkeregisteret as resident in the municipality on the selection day
- be a citizen of Norway or another Nordic country, or have been registered in the Folkeregisteret as resident in the realm for three years before the selection day
The last point is the most important for immigrants: three years of residence replaces citizenship. It is not enough to have been physically in Norway — you must have been registered as resident in the Folkeregisteret. The same three-year rule applies to when foreigners are allowed to vote in Norwegian elections.
You do not need any education, any particular income and no contacts. You should be able to use digital tools, since the court sends documents digitally.
What does a juror do in court?
A juror is an ordinary person without legal training who judges together with the professional judge. Your vote counts equally with the professional judge's.
In an ordinary criminal case in district court, the lay judges are in the majority: one professional judge and two jurors. The jury system was abolished in 2018 and replaced by lay judges. Our article on how the courts in Norway are organized explains the difference between district court, court of appeal and the Supreme Court.
| Case | Professional judges | Lay judges | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| District court, ordinary criminal case | 1 | 2 | straffeprosessloven § 276 |
| District court, particularly extensive case | 2 | 3 | straffeprosessloven § 276 |
| Court of appeal, serious criminal case | 2 | 5 | straffeprosessloven § 332 |
| Civil case, when a party requests it | 1 or more | 2 | tvisteloven § 9-12 |
The first time you appear, you give an oral pledge that you will judge according to the law and the evidence in the case.
How good does your Norwegian have to be?
There is no Norwegian test and no A2 or B1 limit for jurors. The Supreme Court decided this question in the case HR-2012-02349-A (13 December 2012): what matters is that your knowledge of Norwegian is good enough that you understand the case and can express your views on it.
The law only requires that you have "sufficient knowledge of Norwegian" and are "otherwise" "personally suitable for the task" (§ 70 first paragraph). But note: there is no interpreter for jurors. The right to an interpreter applies to parties and witnesses, not to you when you sit as a judge (domstolloven § 91). Concepts such as district court and public prosecutor you can practise for free on SamfunnPrep.
Who can't become a juror?
Two groups are excluded: some positions (§ 71) and some criminal sanctions (§ 72). Everyone else can be selected.
Excluded due to position are among others:
- members of parliament and deputy members
- ministers, state secretaries, political advisers and staff at the Prime Minister's Office
- county governors, judges and court staff
- employees of the public prosecutor's office, police and correctional service, and persons with limited police authority, for example hunting and fishing inspectors
- employees of the Ministry of Justice, the Police Directorate and the Court Administration (Domstoladministrasjonen) (the agency that runs the courts), and staff and students at the Police University College and the Prison School
- practising lawyers and trainee lawyers
- the municipal director and municipal staff who prepare or conduct the selection
Other municipal staff and ordinary local politicians are not excluded. Criminal sanctions exclude you as follows, measured from the start of the selection period:
- unconditional imprisonment for more than one year, preventive detention or special sanction: permanently excluded
- unconditional imprisonment for one year or less: excluded for 15 years after the sentence becomes final
- conditional imprisonment: 10 years
- fine, conditional prosecution discontinuation or sentence postponement for conduct that could result in more than one year's imprisonment: 10 years
- community service and youth sentences are counted according to the length of the subsidiary prison sentence
The municipality checks your record for you (§ 73). You should not obtain a police certificate yourself.
Must your employer give you leave, and what do you get paid?
Yes, your employer must give you leave. The Working Environment Act § 12-13 "Public Offices" gives the right to leave "to the extent necessary to fulfil the statutory obligation to appear in public bodies". The employer cannot require you to use holiday or compensatory time.
The rate is 750 kroner per day or part of a day (Court Fees Regulation § 1-1, rate as of July 2026). It was tripled from 250 kroner on 1 July 2023 — the amount had remained unchanged since 1983.
Here's the catch: if you keep your full salary from your employer, you do not receive the 750 kroner in addition. If your employer deducts from your salary, the court covers the entire salary loss instead, upon documentation from the employer. Travel is covered, and meals on long trips according to the state rates. You get paid even if the case is postponed or cancelled.
How to apply as a juror
You contact your municipality of residence, not the court. The municipal council selects the jurors, and the municipality has a duty to encourage residents to nominate candidates (§ 67).
- Search for "meddommer" on your municipality's website, or call the switchboard.
- Ask to be added to the list, or fill out your municipality's form. You usually provide your name, contact information, date of birth and occupation.
- The municipality may contact you for a conversation about personal suitability, including about language.
- The proposal is displayed for public inspection for at least two weeks (§ 68).
- The municipal council selects the panels, and you will be notified if you are selected.
Reporting interest gives you no right to be selected, but without reporting your interest you are rarely considered.
When is the next opportunity to become a juror?
The current period runs from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2028. The next election will be held by 1 July 2028, for the period 1 January 2029 to 31 December 2032, and the municipalities will begin recruiting in 2027.
Even so, get in touch now. If the need "becomes clearly greater than initially calculated", the court leader can request a supplementary election during the period (§ 66 a), and the municipality must select new members within three months. Some municipalities therefore keep an application form open all year, while others close it between elections. Check your own municipality today.
How much time does the role take?
You usually participate in 1–3 cases a year, and you are drawn randomly and digitally for each case. The court leader determines the size of the panel so that each member can expect to serve in two cases per year (§ 65).
Notice comes 4–6 weeks before the case in district court and around 8 weeks before in the court of appeal. A case can last from half a day to several weeks. If you have served 15 days or more during a year, or 60 days or more during the entire four-year period, you are not required to attend (§ 90).
The role is a civic duty with a duty to attend, not volunteer work, and you can be fined if you do not attend. You have a duty of confidentiality and cannot tell family or friends about the case. If you write about the case or about Norwegian legal practice on social media, you may become disqualified. Some cases are heavy, and the court can offer a conversation with health personnel afterwards. The procedure is described in how a criminal case proceeds from report to judgment.
The position is empty, and it could be yours
In a nationwide survey in 2018, only 5 percent of jurors were born outside Norway. 60 percent were 50 years old or older, and 2.8 percent were under 30 years old. The Court Administration itself writes that municipalities should work actively to ensure that the panels become more representative.
The law requires that the panels "shall have a diverse composition, so that they best represent all parts of the population" (§ 67). Jury service is one of the most concrete ways to participate, alongside other ways to participate in democracy — consultations, parties and volunteering.
Courts, rights and duties are also part of the syllabus for the civics test. Practise for free on SamfunnPrep and become more confident about how Norwegian society works.
