To amend sections 2313.08, 2313.10, 2313.11, 2313.12, 2313.13, 2313.15, 2313.16, 2313.18, 2313.25, 2313.26, 2313.30, 2313.34, 2313.99, and 2945.28 and to enact section 2313.251 of the Revised Code to change the penalties for failure to attend as required by a notice for jury service and to serve as a juror, to change the circumstances under and methods by which jury service may be postponed, to provide protections for employees and small employers when employees are summoned for jury service, to eliminate the cap on juror compensation, to shorten the period of jury service after which a juror may be discharged, to allow the commissioners of jurors to establish an electronic notification system to allow jurors to be notified electronically that the juror shall attend in person the term or part of the term specified in the notice, and to make other changes to the jury selection procedures.

Section 1. That sections 2313.08, 2313.10, 2313.11, 2313.12, 2313.13, 2313.15, 2313.16, 2313.18, 2313.25, 2313.26, 2313.30, 2313.34, 2313.99, and 2945.28 be amended and section 2313.251 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

Sec. 2313.08.  (A) The jury year in each county shall begin on the first Monday of August of each year, provided the court of common pleas may designate otherwise. A new and complete jury list shall be made up annually by the commissioners of jurors, and shall be certified by them and filed in their office before the beginning of each jury year. The names shall be entered in a suitable book or record, to be known as the "annual jury list," shall be arranged alphabetically so far as practicable and under convenient divisions by precincts, districts, and townships, and shall be properly indexed. With each name shall be recorded the occupation, place of business, place of residence, duration of residence in this state, citizenship status, date of birth, and social security number of the person, as nearly as they can be ascertained. A duplicate of the list shall be certified by the commissioners and filed in the office of the clerk of the court of common pleas. The commissioners may, by order of the court, add to the list, or enter on a supplementary list, the names of persons who shall thereafter be discovered to be qualified to serve as jurors.

(B) In the selection of names for the annual jury list, the commissioners may select all names other than names of persons excused from service permanently pursuant to section 2313.16 of the Revised Code from the list of electors certified by the board of elections pursuant to section 2313.06 of the Revised Code or may select all names other than names of persons excused from service permanently pursuant to section 2313.16 of the Revised Code from the list of qualified driver licensees certified by the registrar of motor vehicles pursuant to section 2313.06 of the Revised Code and from the list of electors certified by the board of elections pursuant to section 2313.06 of the Revised Code. The commissioners may not select for the annual jury list names of persons who are excused from service permanently pursuant to section 2313.16 of the Revised Code.

In the selection of the names for the annual jury list, unless otherwise ordered by the court, the commissioners shall assign a consecutive number to each name, starting with one, and shall use a key number that shall be designated by the court. The commissioners shall select the name of each prospective juror, starting with the name that corresponds to a randomly selected number that may range from the number one to the key number, and proceeding accordingly in the numerical sequence of the key number so designated, until the required number of prospective jurors has been selected.

(C) Automation data processing procedures and visual display apparatus may be utilized in the selection of the names for the annual jury list, and in the actual compilation of the list.

Sec. 2313.10. (A) The commissioners of jurors may serve personally or by mail on any person within the county, a notice requiring him the person to attend before a commissioner at a specified time, not less than five days after service of the notice, for the purpose of testifying concerning his the person's own qualifications or liability, or those of any other person, to serve as a juror. A person so notified must attend and testify accordingly.

(B) No prospective juror shall fail to attend as specified in division (A) of this section.

Sec. 2313.11.  (A) If a prospective juror fails to attend as specified in the notice referred to in section 2313.10 of the Revised Code, for any cause except physical disability, or if he a prospective juror refuses to be sworn, or to answer any legal and pertinent question put to him the prospective juror by a commissioner of jurors, such fact shall be reported by the commissioner shall report that fact to the court and such person shall be dealt with as for contempt of court. One or more successive notices may be served upon the same person when he the person fails to attend as required by the former notice and he shall be liable to punishment as for contempt of court for each failure to attend. A commissioner may dispense with the personal attendance of a person so notified, when another person cognizant of the facts is produced and testifies in his stead. When a person has so attended twice for examination, he the person cannot be required to attend again in the same jury year.

(B) No prospective juror shall fail to answer any legal and pertinent question put to the prospective juror by the court.

(C) The court shall inform a prospective juror that the prospective juror has the right to request an in-camera hearing, on the record and with an attorney present, regarding any legal and pertinent question put to the prospective juror by the court.

Sec. 2313.12.  It is the policy of this state that all qualified citizens have an obligation to serve on petit juries when summoned by the courts of this state unless the citizen is excused as provided in sections 2313.01 to 2313.46 of the Revised Code. The granting of an excuse or postponement to a juror shall be permitted as prescribed by sections 2313.01 to 2313.46 of the Revised Code and the general statutes of the state. The commissioners of jurors, upon request, shall issue to a person who is granted an excuse or postponement a certificate of that fact, and the certificate shall excuse the person to whom it is granted from jury service during the time specified in the certificate or shall postpone the time for jury service of the person to whom it is granted to the time specified in the certificate. The commissioners shall keep a record of all proceedings before them or in their office, of all persons who are granted an excuse or postponement, and of the time of and reasons for the excuse or postponement.

Sec. 2313.13. (A) The court of common pleas of a county or the judge of the court of common pleas of a county may discharge, for the term of a court or for part of a term of a court, one or more jurors summoned for jury duty whose attendance is not required for the trial of issues at that term or part of a term.

(B)(1) The court of common pleas of a county or a judge of the court of common pleas of a county may, upon a request made at least forty-eight hours before the juror's initial appearance by a juror who appears in person or contacts the appropriate court employee appointed by the court by telephone, in writing, or by electronic mail, shall postpone the whole or a part of a juror's time of service on the juror's initial appearance for jury duty, after summoning the juror for jury duty, to either if both of the following apply:

(a) To a later date during the same term of court or part of a term of court;

(b) To a subsequent term of court or part of a term of court of the same jury year.

(2) Each (1) The juror has not previously been granted a postponement.

(2) The juror and the appropriate court employee appointed by the court agree to a specified date on which the juror will appear for jury service. The specified date shall be one on which the court is in session and unless extraordinary circumstances exist that is not more than three months after the date for which the juror was originally called to serve. If extraordinary circumstances exist, the court may, at the court's discretion, specify a date on which the juror will appear for jury service that is more than three months after the date for which the juror was originally called to serve.

(B) The court of common pleas of a county or the judge of the court of common pleas of a county may grant a second or subsequent postponement of jury service to a juror only in the event of an extreme emergency, such as a death in the juror's family, a sudden illness of the juror, or a natural disaster or national emergency in which the juror is personally involved, that could not have been anticipated at the time the initial postponement was granted. Before receiving a second or subsequent postponement, the juror shall agree to a specified date on which the juror will appear for jury service. The specified date shall be one on which the court is in session and that is not more than three months after the date of the postponement.

Each juror whose time of service on jury duty is postponed until a specified date may be required to attend the opening of court on that day and on each day after that day until the juror is discharged, without additional summons from the court.

(C) The court of common pleas of a county, or a judge of the court of common pleas of a county, may excuse until a specified date one or more jurors summoned for jury duty whose attendance is not required for the trial of issues until that day. Each juror excused until a specified date may be required to attend the opening of court on that day and on each day after that day until the juror is discharged, without additional summons from the court.

(D) The court of common pleas of a county or a judge of the court of common pleas of a county may excuse a juror, after summoning the juror for jury duty, from service on jury duty at that term of court for not more than three days at a time, if the exigencies of the juror's business require the juror's temporary excuse.

Sec. 2313.15.  The commissioners of jurors shall report the names of all jurors granted a postponement or temporarily excused to a subsequent part of a term or to a subsequent term as provided in section 2313.13 of the Revised Code, to the officers attending the drawing of the jurors for that term or part of a term, and each such name shall be placed upon the list of jurors drawn as provided by sections 2313.01 to 2313.46 of the Revised Code. Such juror shall be made one of the total number directed to be drawn for that term or part of a term, and no more names shall be drawn from the jury wheel, or drawn by use of the automation data processing equipment and procedures described in section 2313.07 of the Revised Code, than are sufficient to make up the number ordered by adding the names of the jurors so excused to the names then drawn.

Sec. 2313.16.  (A) Except as provided by section 2313.13 of the Revised Code, the court of common pleas shall not excuse a person who is liable to serve as a juror and who is drawn and notified, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the judge by either the juror or another person acquainted with the facts that one or more of the following applies:

(A) The juror is then necessarily absent from the county and will not return in time to serve.

(B)(1) The interests of the public or of the juror will be materially injured by the juror's attendance.

(C) The juror is physically unable to serve.

(D) The juror's spouse or a near relative of the juror or the juror's spouse has recently died or is dangerously ill.

(E) The juror had been called as a juror for trial in a court of record in the county within the same jury year.

(F)(2) The juror is a cloistered member of a religious organization.

(3) The prospective juror has a mental or physical condition that causes the prospective juror to be incapable of performing jury service. The prospective juror, or the prospective juror's personal representative, must provide the court with documentation from a physician licensed to practice medicine verifying that a mental or physical condition renders the prospective juror unfit for jury service for a period of up to twenty-four months.

(4) Jury service would otherwise cause undue or extreme physical or financial hardship to the prospective juror or a person under the care or supervision of the prospective juror. A judge of the court for which the prospective juror was called to jury service shall make undue or extreme physical or financial hardship determinations. The judge may delegate the authority to make these determinations to an appropriate court employee appointed by the court.

(B) A prospective juror who requests to be excused from jury service under this section shall take all actions necessary to obtain a ruling on that request by not later than the date on which the prospective juror is scheduled to appear for jury duty.

(C)(1) For purposes of this section, undue or extreme physical or financial hardship is limited to circumstances in which any of the following apply:

(a) The prospective juror would be required to abandon a person under the prospective juror's personal care or supervision due to the impossibility of obtaining an appropriate substitute caregiver during the period of participation in the jury pool or on the jury.

(b) The prospective juror would incur costs that would have a substantial adverse impact on the payment of the prospective juror's necessary daily living expenses or on those for whom the prospective juror provides the principle means of support.

(c) The prospective juror would suffer physical hardship that would result in illness or disease.

(2) Undue or extreme physical or financial hardship does not exist solely based on the fact that a prospective juror will be required to be absent from the prospective juror's place of employment.

(D) A prospective juror who asks a judge to grant an excuse based on undue or extreme physical or financial hardship shall provide the judge with documentation that the judge finds to clearly support the request to be excused. If a prospective juror fails to provide satisfactory documentation, the court may deny the request to be excused.

(E) When a person prospective juror who is liable to serve is excused in a case specified in this section, the prospective juror can be excused only by the judge presiding in the case or a representative of the judge. An excuse, including whether or not it is a permanent excuse, approved pursuant to this section shall not extend beyond that term. Every approved excuse shall be recorded and filed with the commissioners of jurors. After twenty-four months, a person excused from jury service shall become eligible once again for qualification as a juror unless the person was excused from service permanently. A person is excused from jury service permanently only when the deciding judge determines that the underlying grounds for being excused are of a permanent nature.

Sec. 2313.18.  (A) No employer shall discharge or, threaten to discharge, or take any disciplinary action that could lead to the discharge of any permanent employee who is summoned to serve as a juror pursuant to Chapter 2313. of the Revised Code if the employee gives reasonable notice to the employer of the summons prior to the commencement of the employee's service as a juror and if the employee is absent from employment because of the actual jury service.

(B) No employer shall require or request an employee to use annual, vacation, or sick leave for time spent responding to a summons for jury duty, time spent participating in the jury selection process, or for time spent actually serving on a jury. Nothing in this division requires an employer to provide annual, vacation, or sick leave to employees under the provisions of this section who otherwise are not entitled to those benefits under the employer's policies.

(C) A court shall automatically postpone and reschedule the service of a summoned juror of an employer with twenty-five or fewer full-time employees, or their equivalent, if another employee of that employer has previously been summoned to appear during the same term or part of a term of that court for which that juror has been summoned and if that employer or employee demonstrates to the sufficiency of the court that the other employee has been so summoned. A postponement under this division does not constitute the excused individual's right to one automatic postponement pursuant to section 2313.13 of the Revised Code.

(D) Whoever violates this section shall be punished as for a contempt of court pursuant to Chapter 2705. of the Revised Code.

Sec. 2313.25.  (A) The clerk of the court of common pleas shall deliver to the sheriff venires containing the names and addresses of the jurors drawn, and specifying when the jurors shall appear. The sheriff shall notify each juror named therein in the venires to attend, in person or electronically, as specified in division (B) of this section, the term or part of a term for which he the juror was drawn, by serving upon him, the juror at least six days before the commencement thereof, of the term or part of a term a notice addressed to him, the juror stating that he the juror has been drawn as a juror for, and is required to attend, in person or electronically, as specified in division (B) of this section, the term or part of a term specified in the notice. Such The sheriff shall serve the notice may be served personally, by mail, or by leaving it at the juror's residence, or at his the juror's usual place of business. Before the commencement of a term, or part of a term, the sheriff shall return the venires for that term or part of a term, with his the sheriff's services thereon, and such the return and service shall be presumptive evidence of the fact of such service.

(B) If pursuant to section 2313.251 of the Revised Code, the commissioners of jurors establish a procedure for the electronic notification of a person who has been drawn as a juror, the notice addressed to the juror and served pursuant to division (A) of this section shall specify the procedure for electronically notifying the juror.

Sec. 2313.251. The commissioners of jurors may establish an electronic notification system to allow a person who has been drawn as a juror to be notified electronically that the juror shall attend in person the term or part of the term specified in the notice. The types of electronic notification include, but are not limited to, cellular telephone, pager, or other forms of telecommunication. If the commissioners of jurors establish an electronic notification system, the commissioners shall establish a procedure for implementing the system, a procedure for the juror to select the method of electronic notification that is applicable to the juror, and a procedure for the juror to opt in or opt out of the electronic notification system, whichever is applicable.

Sec. 2313.26.  At any time, during the term of a court of record, the court may order an additional number of jurors to be drawn by the commissioners of jurors for the term, or for part of a term, at which the order is made, or for immediate service in a particular case. The order shall specify the number to be drawn, and the time of drawing. The drawing may be made either in open court, under the direction of the judge, or in the ordinary manner prescribed in sections 2313.01 to 2313.46, inclusive, of the Revised Code, except that notice of the drawing is not required to be given, provided that the required officers are present. The sheriff shall forthwith notify the jurors so drawn, in the same manner as other jurors are notified, to attend the term, or part of a term, in person or electronically, as specified in section 2313.25 of the Revised Code, at the time specified in the order, and make due and proper return of the venires with his the sheriff's service thereon. Such return shall be presumptive evidence of the fact of such service.

Sections 2313.24 and 2313.25 of the Revised Code apply to the notification of jurors drawn under this section.

Sec. 2313.30.  When a No person whose name is drawn and who is notified, fails shall fail to attend and serve as a juror at a term of a court of record, without having been excused, the court, besides imposing a fine as prescribed in section 2313.29 of the Revised Code, may direct the sheriff to arrest him and bring him before the court; and when he has been so brought in, it may compel him to serve, or it may punish him as for contempt of court.

Sec. 2313.34.  (A) A person who is summoned as a juror and who has actually served as a juror in any county of the state under sections 2313.01 to 2313.46 of the Revised Code for three two consecutive calendar weeks shall be discharged by the court, except that the person shall not be so discharged until the close of a trial in which the person may be serving when the person's jury term expires.

(B)(1) The board of county commissioners by resolution shall fix the compensation of each juror, not to exceed forty dollars for each day's attendance, payable out of the county treasury.

(2) After ten days of actual service, except as otherwise authorized by division (B)(2) of this section, the compensation of a juror shall be fixed for each additional day of actual service at an amount equal to the greater of fifteen dollars or one and one-half times the compensation fixed pursuant to division (B)(1) of this section. The board of county commissioners by resolution may set the compensation at a greater amount that shall not exceed two times the compensation fixed pursuant to division (B)(1) of this section.

(3) Residents of townships that are comprised entirely of islands shall be reimbursed for the additional transportation costs they incur to serve as a juror, in the amount certified to be due by a judge of the court in which the jury service is performed.

(C) A person who is discharged as prescribed in this section is thereafter prohibited from jury service in any court of the state until the second jury year after the day of the person's last service, except in counties of less than one hundred thousand population, in which cases the court shall make rules in the county applicable to subsequent jury service by persons of that nature.

(D) Whenever the certificates of the clerk of the court of common pleas show that a person is entitled to a discharge as prescribed in this section, the commissioners of jurors, upon request, shall certify to that fact. No person shall be exempted from jury service for any reason, but a person may be excused from jury service or have the person's jury service postponed in accordance with sections 2313.01 to 2313.46 of the Revised Code and the general statutes of the state.

(E) No person shall be exempted or excused from jury service or be granted a postponement of jury service by reason of any financial contribution to any public or private organization.

Sec. 2313.99.  (A) Whoever violates section 2313.10, 2313.11, 2313.29, or 2313.30 of the Revised Code may be fined not less than twenty-five one hundred nor more than two hundred fifty dollars and may be punished as for contempt of court.

(B) Whoever violates section 2313.47 of the Revised Code shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars, imprisoned not less than thirty nor more than ninety days, or both.

Sec. 2945.28.  In criminal cases jurors and the jury shall take the following oath to be administered by the trial court or the clerk of the court of common pleas, and the jurors shall respond to the oath "I do swear" or "I do affirm": "You shall well and truly try, and true deliverance make between the State of Ohio and the defendant (giving his name). Do you swear or affirm that you will diligently inquire into and carefully deliberate all matters between the State of Ohio and the defendant (giving the defendant's name)? Do you swear or affirm you will do this to the best of your skill and understanding, without bias or prejudice? So help you God."

A juror shall be allowed to make affirmation and the words "this you do as you shall answer under the pains and penalties of perjury" shall be substituted for the words, "So help you God."

Section 2. That existing sections 2313.08, 2313.10, 2313.11, 2313.12, 2313.13, 2313.15, 2313.16, 2313.18, 2313.25, 2313.26, 2313.30, 2313.34, 2313.99, and 2945.28 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.