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Residents of New York County may be summoned to serve jury duty in trials, civil and criminal, in the County, or to serve on a grand jury. As Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye has said, jury service, we recognize, "is a burden, interrupting your personal and business lives, [but] it is also a unique privilege we enjoy as citizens. Jury service is thus not only your responsibility but also your opportunity to participate in the American justice system, to learn firsthand how it works, and to help us make it work better."

In recent years, the courts of New York State, under the direction of Chief Judge Kaye, have been engaged in a vigorous program of reform of the jury process and jury service. As part of this reform, exemptions from jury duty have been eliminated so that all citizens must take part, even Judges. This has had the effect of expanding the diversity of the jury pool and reducing the frequency with which any individual citizen must be called to serve.

For information about jury service in the County of New York, click on: www.manhattanjuror.org.

For information about jury service in general in the State of New York, including a Handbook explaining jury service and answering common questions, click on: www.nyjuror.gov.