Fees and travel expenses of jurors

§ 521. Fees and travel expenses of jurors. (a) Except as provided in
subdivision (b) of this section, trial and grand jurors in each court of
the unified court system shall be entitled to an allowance equal to the
sum of seventy-two dollars per day for each and every day of physical
attendance wherein the court convenes, except that no person who is
employed shall be entitled to receive such allowance if, pursuant to
section five hundred nineteen of this article, their employer is
prohibited from withholding the first seventy-two dollars of wages of
such person during such period and such person's daily wages equal or
exceed seventy-two dollars. If such person's daily wages are less than
seventy-two dollars, such person shall be entitled to receive an
allowance hereunder equal to the difference between seventy-two dollars
and the amount of their daily wages. Such fees and those expenses
actually and necessarily incurred in providing food and lodging for
jurors shall be a state charge payable out of funds appropriated to the
office of court administration for that purpose.

(b) No employee shall be entitled to receive the per diem allowance
authorized by subdivision (a) of this section for any regularly
scheduled workday on which jury service is rendered if, on such day, his
or her wages are not withheld on account of such service.

(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, a trial or
grand juror may waive entitlement to the allowance authorized by
subdivision (a) of this section. In such event the amount of such
allowance shall be available to the chief administrator of the courts
solely for the purposes specified in paragraph (m) of subdivision two of
section two hundred twelve of this chapter, except that any such amounts
not expended in such fashion as of the close of the fiscal year in which
they became available shall be transferred by the comptroller to the
supplemental jury facilities fund established pursuant to section
ninety-four-c of the state finance law.