Is Jury Duty Mandatory in California? Penalties, Excuses, and Pay

Yes, jury duty is mandatory in California. If you are a qualified resident and the court sends you a summons, you are legally required to respond. Ignoring it can lead to escalating fines that reach $1,500, and a judge who finds you in contempt can add a fine of up to $1,000 and as many as five days in jail.¹² Courts pull names at random from voter rolls, DMV records, and Franchise Tax Board filings, so almost every adult resident ends up in the pool eventually.³

Who Actually Has to Serve

You qualify if you are a U.S. citizen at least 18 years old, live in the county that summoned you, and understand English well enough to follow the case.⁴ Your job, income, age, sex, race, or disability does not exempt you.⁵

A few specific conditions do disqualify you automatically:

You are currently serving on another trial jury or grand jury in California.
You are the subject of a conservatorship.
You are currently incarcerated, on parole, on post-release community supervision, on felony probation, or on mandated supervision for a felony conviction.
You are required to register as a sex offender because of a felony conviction.

Each of these has to be current. A past felony conviction alone does not permanently bar you once you have completed your sentence and supervision.⁴ Even if you think you fall into one of these categories, respond to the summons and say so. Do not simply skip the date.

What Happens If You Ignore the Summons

The court does not go straight to punishment. If you fail to appear or respond, the court can issue a second summons at least 90 days later. Ignore that one and you get a failure-to-appear notice warning of possible sanctions. Only after that does the court issue a formal order requiring you to explain why you should not be sanctioned.¹

The monetary sanctions climb with each violation:

First violation: up to $250
Second violation: up to $750
Third or later violation: up to $1,500

Contempt of court is a separate track. A judge who finds you in contempt can impose a fine of up to $1,000, jail time of up to five days, or both.² Courts almost always start with monetary sanctions before reaching for contempt, but the contempt option is what gives the summons its legal teeth.

Paying the fine does not end the obligation. You still owe jury service after the sanction is paid.¹

How to Get Excused or Postponed the Right Way

California law lets the court excuse you only for “undue hardship” on you or on the public.⁵ Inconvenience is not enough. The Rules of Court recognize a limited set of hardship categories:

Financial hardship, based on your household income, whether your employer pays during service, the expected length of the trial, and whether serving would genuinely threaten your ability to support yourself or your dependents.
A physical or mental condition that would put you at risk during service. If you are under 70, the court can ask for documentation from your doctor.
Sole caregiving responsibility for a child, elderly relative, or other dependent when no reasonable substitute care is available.
Active public-safety duties that are immediately needed and cannot be reasonably reassigned.

The court decides these requests case by case. One excuse is automatic: if you served on a jury or appeared for jury selection within the past 12 months, the court must excuse you on request, and the jury commissioner can extend that cooling-off period longer at their discretion.⁶

If you just need more time, ask for a postponement instead. Most California superior courts let you submit the request through an online juror portal linked on your summons, and many allow at least one postponement without much friction. Federal courts in California, for comparison, allow up to two postponements within a year of your original report date.⁷ Wait for confirmation before assuming any request has been granted. The court will notify you by mail or through the portal.

Pay and Your Job Protection

Jurors are not paid for the first day of service. Starting on day two, you receive $15 per day plus mileage at $0.34 per mile round trip to the courthouse.⁸ Government employees who keep receiving their regular pay do not get the daily juror fee. Private employers in California are not required to pay you during service, though some do.

Your job itself is protected. California law prohibits your employer from firing, demoting, or otherwise retaliating against you for attending jury duty, as long as you give reasonable notice of the summons. If your employer violates that rule, you can recover lost wages, lost benefits, and reinstatement, and a willful refusal to rehire is a misdemeanor.⁹

Watch Out for Jury Duty Scams

One boundary worth knowing: not every “you missed jury duty” contact is real. Scammers routinely impersonate court staff and law enforcement, calling or emailing people to claim they skipped jury service and threatening fines or arrest unless they pay immediately by gift card, cryptocurrency, or wire transfer. That is always a scam.¹⁰

Real jury summonses arrive by U.S. mail. Court staff may call about scheduling, but they will never ask for your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number, and they will never demand payment over the phone. If you get a suspicious contact, hang up, call your local superior court’s jury office directly to check your status, and report the attempt to your local police fraud unit.¹⁰

1
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 209
2
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1218
3
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 197
4
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 203
5
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 204
6
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 2.1008 – Excuses From Jury Service
7
Central District of California. Requesting a Postponement
8
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 215
9
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code Section 230
10
Judicial Branch of California. Jury Scam Alert