Bill Text: CT SB00194 | 2012 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: An Act Concerning Jury Duty For Breastfeeding Mothers.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Passed) 2012-05-31 - Signed by the Governor [SB00194 Detail]
Download: Connecticut-2012-SB00194-Introduced.html
General Assembly |
Raised Bill No. 194 | |||
February Session, 2012 |
LCO No. 1068 | |||
*01068_______KID* |
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Referred to Committee on Select Committee on Children |
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Introduced by: |
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(KID) |
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AN ACT CONCERNING THE POSTPONEMENT OF JURY DUTY FOR BREASTFEEDING MOTHERS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 51-232 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2012):
(a) The Jury Administrator shall send to each juror drawn, by first class mail, a notice stating the place where and the time when he is to appear and such notice shall constitute a sufficient summons unless a judge of said court directs that jurors be summoned in some other manner.
(b) Such summons or notice shall also state the fact that a juror has a right to one postponement of the juror's term of juror service for not more than ten months, [and] except a juror breastfeeding her child or expressing breast milk for her child has a right to one postponement for not more than twelve months. Such summons or notice may contain any other information and instructions deemed appropriate by the Jury Administrator. If the date to which the juror has postponed jury service is improper, unavailable or inconvenient for the court, the Jury Administrator shall assign a date of service which, if possible, is reasonably close to the postponement date selected by the juror. Such notice or summons shall be made available to any party or the attorney for such party in an action to be tried to a jury. The Jury Administrator may grant additional postponements within or beyond said ten months or twelve months, as applicable, but not beyond one year from the original summons date.
(c) The Jury Administrator shall send to a prospective juror a juror confirmation form and a confidential juror questionnaire. Such questionnaire shall include questions eliciting the juror's name, age, race and ethnicity, occupation, education and information usually raised in voir dire examination. The questionnaire shall inform the prospective juror that information concerning race and ethnicity is required solely to enforce nondiscrimination in jury selection, that the furnishing of such information is not a prerequisite to being qualified for jury service and that such information need not be furnished if the prospective juror finds it objectionable to do so. Such juror confirmation form and confidential juror questionnaire shall be signed by the prospective juror under penalty of false statement. Copies of the completed questionnaires shall be provided to the judge and counsel for use during voir dire or in preparation therefor. Counsel shall be required to return such copies to the clerk of the court upon completion of the voir dire. Except for disclosure made during voir dire or unless the court orders otherwise, information inserted by jurors shall be held in confidence by the court, the parties, counsel and their authorized agents. Such completed questionnaires shall not constitute a public record.
(d) The number of jurors in a panel may be reduced when, in the opinion of the court, such number of jurors is in excess of reasonable requirements. Such reduction by the clerk shall be accomplished by lot to the extent authorized by the court and the jurors released shall be subject to recall for jury duty only if and when required.
(e) In each judicial district, the Chief Court Administrator shall designate one or more courthouses to be the courthouse to which jurors shall originally be summoned. The court may assign any jurors of a jury pool to attend any courtroom within the judicial district.
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections: | ||
Section 1 |
October 1, 2012 |
51-232 |
Statement of Purpose:
To allow the jury administrator to grant a postponement of jury duty for no more than twelve months to any mother who is breastfeeding her child or expressing breast milk for her child.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]