Connecticut § 51-237 - Jurors failing to appear.

§ 51-237. Jurors failing to appear.

Sec. 51-237. Jurors failing to appear. Each juror, duly chosen, drawn and summoned, who fails to appear shall be subject to a civil penalty, the amount of which shall be established by the Chief Court Administrator, but the court may excuse such juror from the payment thereof. If a sufficient number of the jurors summoned do not appear, or if for any cause there is not a sufficient number of jurors to make up the panel, the court may order such number of persons who qualify for jury service under section 51-217 to be summoned as may be necessary, as talesmen, and any talesman so summoned who makes default of appearance without sufficient cause shall be subject to a civil penalty, the amount of which shall be established by the Chief Court Administrator. The provisions of this section shall be enforced by the Attorney General within available appropriations.

(1949 Rev., S. 7925; 1959, P.A. 28, S. 99; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 83-5, S. 12, 18; P.A. 84-393, S. 12, 18, 20; P.A. 94-169, S. 15, 20; P.A. 96-179, S. 7; P.A. 10-180, S. 3; P.A. 24-108, S. 17.)

History: 1959 act deleted reference to justice as empowered to excuse juror or order summoning of talesmen; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 83-5, effective July 1, 1985, and applicable to summoning of jurors for jury duty on and after September 1, 1986, increased fine for failure to appear from $5 to $90 and replaced “judicious electors” with “persons who qualify for jury service under section 51-217”; P.A. 84-393 repealed amendments enacted by June Sp. Sess. P.A. 83-5 and amended Subsec. (a), making provisions applicable to jurors selected and summoned to serve as jurors on or before August 31, 1986, and added Subsec. (b) re fine of juror or talesman failing to appear, increasing fine to $90 and making provisions of Subsec. (b) applicable to jurors selected and summoned to serve on or after September 1, 1986; P.A. 94-169 eliminated obsolete provisions, effective July 1, 1994; P.A. 96-179 changed penalty for failure to appear as juror from $90 to an infraction; P.A. 10-180 provided that juror or talesman who fails to appear shall be subject to civil penalty in amount to be established by judges of the Superior Court, deleted provisions re commission of infraction, required Attorney General, within available appropriations, to enforce provisions of section and made a technical change; P.A. 24-108 substituted “Chief Court Administrator” for “judges of the Superior Court” re establishment of civil penalty for a summoned juror who fails to appear, effective June 4, 2024.

Sheriff may of his own motion procure the attendance of persons from whom talesmen can be selected, if required. 47 C. 135. Proper method of drawing jurors as talesmen. 100 C. 730. A court may always, when there is “any cause” therefor, resort to the summoning of talesmen to fill out a jury, even though there are people left on the year's list who have not been called. 138 C. 196. Provisions of Sec. 51-231 concerning procedure for summoning not applicable. 146 C. 59.