BILL ANALYSIS
By: Harris
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Jury service imposes an inconvenience on citizens, and occasionally a person summoned has need for postponement and rescheduling of his service. The purpose of this bill is to permit a resident of Tarrant County to obtain postponement of jury service in certain circumstances.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
The bill would amend the Government Code to provide that a person in a bracketed county may receive a mandatory postponement of jury service on request if the request is the first since the most recent reconstitution of the jury wheel in the county so long as the person and the clerk are able to designate a date within 6 months to reschedule the service. A second request for postponement would be permissive and would require that the clerk determine that a legitimate reason exists for the postponement.
The bill would apply only to counties of over 1.4 million in population having within their boundaries at least two municipalities of over 300,000 population. Currently, this would describe a single county, i.e. Tarrant County.
The act is prospective.
EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2007.