Conn. Gen. Stat. § 51-232

Current with legislation from the 2024 Regular and Special Sessions.

Section 51-232 - Summoning of jurors. Juror questionnaire. Reduction of panel. Courthouse

(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 or she 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 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 to 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 but not beyond one year from the original summons date.

(c)

(1) The Jury Administrator shall provide 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, gender, occupation, education, information usually raised in voir dire examination and such other demographic information determined appropriate by the Judicial Branch. 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 to 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.

(2) The Judicial Branch shall compile a record of the demographic characteristics of all persons who:

(A) Are summoned for jury service,

(B) participated in a panel,

(C) are subject to a peremptory challenge,

(D) are subject to challenge for cause, and

(E) serve on a jury. Such record shall exclude personally identifiable information and shall be maintained in a manner that provides free and open access to the information on the Internet. As used in this subdivision, "personally identifiable information" means any identifying information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual.

(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 originally shall be summoned. The court may assign any jurors of a jury pool to attend any courtroom within the judicial district.

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 51-232

(1949 Rev., S. 7915; 1955, S. 3170d; 1959, P.A. 28, S. 209; 1967, P.A. 695, S. 6; 1971, P.A. 870, S. 8; P.A. 74-183, S. 279, 291; P.A. 76-436, S. 241, 681; P.A. 77-576, S. 15, 65; P.A. 78-280, S. 89, 127; P.A. 82-11, S. 9, 12; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 83-5, S. 10, 18; P.A. 84-393, S. 10, 18, 20; P.A. 86-278, S. 9, 12; P.A. 94-169, S. 12, 20; P.A. 96-179, S. 5, 9; P.A. 97-200, S. 9; P.A. 00-116, S. 5, 7.)

Amended by P.A. 21-0170, S. 5 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2021 Regular Session eff. 10/1/2022.

Amended by P.A. 22-0026,S. 21 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2022 Regular Session, eff. 7/1/2022.

Amended by P.A. 21-0170,S.4 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2021 Regular Session, eff. 7/1/2022 and S. 5 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2021 Regular Session eff. 10/1/2022.