Bill Text: NY A08182 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Excuses prospective jurors from jury service if they are a full-time caregiver responsible for the care of a person with a mental or physical condition that causes such person to be incapable of caring for himself or herself.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to judiciary [A08182 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A08182-Introduced.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8182

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    October 27, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A. SANTABARBARA -- read once and referred to the
          Committee on Judiciary

        AN ACT to amend the judiciary law, in relation to  excusing  prospective
          jurors from jury service if they are a full-time caregiver responsible
          for  the  care  of  a  person with a mental or physical condition that
          causes such person to be incapable of caring for himself or herself

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Subdivision  (a)  of section 517 of the judiciary law, as
     2  amended by chapter 86 of the laws of 1995, paragraphs 1 and 2 as amended
     3  by chapter 380 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
     4    (a) (1) Except as otherwise provided in paragraph two or three of this
     5  subdivision, the commissioner of jurors may, in his or  her  discretion,
     6  on  the  application  of  a  prospective  juror who has been summoned to
     7  attend, excuse such prospective juror from a part or the  whole  of  the
     8  time of jury service or may postpone the time of jury service to a later
     9  day  during  the same or any subsequent term of the court, provided that
    10  if the prospective juror is a breastfeeding mother and submits with  her
    11  application  a  note  from  a  physician indicating that the prospective
    12  juror is breastfeeding, the commissioner shall  excuse  the  prospective
    13  juror  or  postpone  the  time of jury service. The application shall be
    14  presented to the commissioner at such time and in such manner as  he  or
    15  she  shall  require,  except that an application for postponement of the
    16  initial date for jury service may be made by telephone.
    17    (2) An application for postponement of jury service shall  be  granted
    18  hereunder  provided:  (i) such service has not already been postponed or
    19  excused, (ii) the application is made at such time and in such manner as
    20  the commissioner of jurors requires, and (iii) the postponement is to  a
    21  date certain when the court is in session not more than six months after
    22  the date on which such service otherwise is to commence and such date is
    23  selected  by  the  prospective  juror, provided  that if the prospective

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD07487-02-3
        A. 8182                             2

     1  juror is a breastfeeding mother, the postponement date  may  be  a  date
     2  certain  up  to two years after the date on which such service otherwise
     3  is to commence.
     4    (3) An application to be excused from jury service shall be granted if
     5  the  prospective  juror  provides  a  written statement under penalty of
     6  perjury, in a form and  manner  as  the  commissioner  of  jurors  shall
     7  require,  that such prospective juror is a full-time caregiver responsi-
     8  ble for the care of a person with a mental or  physical  condition  that
     9  causes such person to be incapable of caring for himself or herself.
    10    §  2.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
    11  have become a law.