Jury Service FAQs
Yes. It is a right of citizenship and required by law.
We obtain names from the Department of Motor Vehicles, the California Franchise Tax Board, and the Registrar of Voters. If the information you provide to these three sources is not identical and/or up to date, then you may receive one or more summonses. If you receive more than one summons, please contact the Jury Commissioner to correct your record.
State on the front of the unopened summons "this person is no longer at this address" or “this person is deceased” and place the summons back in the mail.
Yes. Pursuant to California Rules of Court Rule 2.1008, all requests to be excused from jury service that are granted for undue hardship must be in writing by the summoned juror or placed on the court’s record. The summoned juror must support the request with facts specifying the hardship and a statement as to why the circumstances constituting the undue hardship cannot be avoided by deferring the summoned juror’s service.
No. Neither stay-at-home parents nor childcare providers are exempt or excused from jury service. Children are not allowed in the courtrooms. Alternative arrangements will need to be made. Refer to the section titled "Postponement or deferral of Jury Service", if additional time is needed to arrange for childcare.
No. Pursuant to California Rules of Court Rule 2.1008, all requests to be excused from jury service that are granted for undue hardship must be in writing by the summoned juror or placed on the court’s record. The summoned juror must support the request with facts specifying the hardship and a statement as to why the circumstances constituting the undue hardship cannot be avoided by deferring the summoned juror’s service.
Effective January 3, 2000, prospective jurors may be summoned once a year. Your term of service is One Day or One Trial. Jurors report in person one day, and may be selected to serve on a case of any length. Once your jury service is completed, you will not be asked to serve again for one year. If you receive more than one summons during the year, you may be in our database more than once. This often occurs if information received from the Department of Motor Vehicles, the California Franchise Tax Board, and the Registrar of Voters are not the same. Hyphenated names, maiden and married names and names containing a space can cause duplication within the database. If you receive more than one summons in a year, notify the jury office in writing so we may correct the error and update our database.
Refer to the Failure to Appear page.
If you do not have any access to the juror portal, then you will complete the juror information and qualifications form when you arrive for jury service, please let the jury clerk know once you arrive for service.
The court uses the "One Day/One Trial" program under California Rules of Court, Rule 2.1002. This is intended to make jury service more convenient by shortening the time that a person is required to serve to one day or one trial. If you are assigned to a courtroom for jury selection or serve on a trial, you will continue your service until the trial is completed.