A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to authorize a program allowing jurors to waive payment of the uniform juror fee and to designate the waived fees to be used for specified services.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 7A‑312 reads as rewritten:
"§ 7A‑312.  Uniform fees for jurors; meals.
A juror in the General Court of Justice including a petit juror, or a coroner's juror, but excluding a grand juror, shall receive twelve dollars ($12.00) per day, except that if any person serves as a juror for more than five days in any 24‑month period, the juror shall receive thirty dollars ($30.00) per day for each day of service in excess of five days. A grand juror shall receive twelve dollars ($12.00) per day. However, any juror may waive payment of the per diem fees provided for in this section; a juror waiving the fee may designate that the fee be used for any of various services provided in that district, as designated by the senior resident superior court judge. A juror required to remain overnight at the site of the trial shall be furnished adequate accommodations and subsistence. If required by the presiding judge to remain in a body during the trial of a case, meals shall be furnished the jurors during the period of sequestration. Jurors from out of the county summoned to sit on a special venire shall receive mileage at the same rate as State employees."
SECTION 2.  The senior resident superior court judge in each district may provide jurors with a choice of various services in that district to which they may designate their waived juror fees, including drug treatment court client services, courthouse self‑help centers, and courthouse child care centers; the choice may also include designation to a fund for the establishment of a service not yet available in that district. If the senior resident superior court judge elects not to provide jurors with a choice of services to designate their waived fees to, or if jurors elect not to designate the fees to a particular service, the waived fees shall represent cost savings to the Judicial Department.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2005, and applies to jury service that begins on or after that date.