A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to allow jurors to waive payment of per diem fees and to allow those funds to be used to provide human services within that district.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 7A‑312 reads as rewritten:
"§ 7A‑312.  Uniform fees for jurors; meals.
(a)	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) for the first day of service and twenty dollars ($20.00) per day afterwards, except that if any person serves as a juror for more than five days in any 24‑month period, the juror shall receive forty dollars ($40.00) per day for each day of service in excess of five days. A grand juror shall receive twenty dollars ($20.00) per day. 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.
(b)	Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, a juror may waive payment of the per diem fees provided for in that subsection. A juror waiving the fee may designate that the fee be used for any of following services, if such services are provided in the district: (i) client treatment and service programs associated with a drug treatment or DWI treatment court program; (ii) courthouse self‑help centers; (iii) courthouse child care centers; (iv) legal aid programs operated by a nonprofit corporation operating within the district; and (v) the Crime Victims Compensation Fund. If no such services are provided within the district, then waived fees are transferred to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007, and applies to jury service that begins on or after that date.