CT jury service until 75 years old? It's now the law - New Canaan Advertiser

If your 70th birthday arrived and you had hoped to never get a jury summons again, you have a little longer to wait.

A tiny provision in a law passed last year increases the age from 70 to 75 at which a person may opt out of the jury pool.

“The change increased the eligible jury pool because people who are 70 to 74 now need to serve,” said Rhonda Hebert, a spokesperson for the state Judicial Branch. “Prior to the passage of the public act, people between the ages of 70 and 74 could have chosen not to serve.”

The measure, which took effect in October, was included as part of sweeping recommendations made by a state jury selection task force, whose primary concern was a reduction in bias in the jury pool.

As the state’s chief public defender, Christine Perra Rapillo, explained in submitted testimony, the bill’s proposals were intended to streamline the jury selection process, expand the available jury pool and to make it easier to “seat a diverse jury.”

“The proposals include increasing the daily pay for juror service, expanding the categories of individuals eligible to serve on a jury, and an innovative idea to make sure that unanswered jury notices are resent to individuals from the same ZIP code,” Rapillo wrote. “The new recommendations would require that demographic information, including race, be collected on the jury information forms and that the information be maintained without personally identifiable information.”

Though the bill, signed into law last year by Gov. Ned Lamont, increased the age until a resident must serve on a jury, it does not prevent residents older than 75 from serving if they so choose.

When asked if the shift had made an impact on the size of the available jury pool, Hebert said it was too soon to tell.

“The public act only became effective October of 2021, so it would be too soon for us to analyze the data and make any comparisons,” she said.

source: https://www.ncadvertiser.com/news/article/CT-jury-service-until-75-years-old-It-s-now-17097935.php

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