SPONSOR: Veit
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass with HCS" by the Standing Committee on Judiciary by a vote of 11 to 0. Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Rules- Administrative Oversight by a vote of 10 to 0.
The following is a summary of the House Committee Substitute for HB 160.
This bill specifies that, except in Greene County, the County Commission in any county may vote to restructure juror compensation so that grand and petit jurors do not get paid for the first two days of service but thereafter will receive $50 per day, as well as $0.07 per mile for necessary travel from the juror's residence to the courthouse and back, to be paid by the county. A county commission may authorize compensation to a grand or petit juror for the first two days of service, but the compensation cannot exceed $10.
In Greene County, this pay structure is set by current law.
The following is a summary of the public testimony from the committee hearing. The testimony was based on the introduced version of the bill.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that this has been done in Springfield and this leaves it up to the county commission to do what it thinks is right for jurors. Greene County does not pay jurors for the first two days but it does pay jurors $50 a day for every day thereafter. However, if a county wants to authorize payment to jurors for the first two days, it can. The vast majority of rural counties have trials that last one to two days, so it should be left up to the county commission to pay for those two days. Because if a trial lasts two days and jurors do not get paid for those days, jurors would not be paid anything for doing their civic duty.
Testifying for the bill were Representative Veit; Arnie Dienoff; Judicial Conference of Missouri; and Jon Beetem.
OPPONENTS: There was no opposition voiced to the committee.
Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.
Statutes affected: