St. Louis City Jury Duty: Pay, Exemptions, and Scam Warnings

If you’ve been summoned for jury duty in St. Louis City, you must respond through the state’s eJuror portal, appear on your date at the Cahill Courts Building downtown (or use your one automatic postponement), and expect $12 to $18 per day plus mileage while your job stays legally protected. Ignoring the summons is civil contempt and can cost you up to $500. St. Louis City jury duty runs through the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court, and the rules below are what you actually need to handle yours.

Responding to the Summons

Your first step is the Jury Questionnaire, filed online at courts.mo.gov/ejuror. That confirms your eligibility and gives the court what it needs to process you before your reporting date.¹

Do not wait. If you have a conflict, the fix is a postponement request, not silence. Failing to respond is treated seriously.

Postponing Your Service

Every summoned juror gets one automatic postponement. Request it by phone, email, or in writing to the jury commissioners. The new date has to fall within six months of your original date and land on a day the court is in session. Full-time students at accredited institutions get up to 12 months.²

A second postponement is much harder. You have to show an extreme emergency that couldn’t have been anticipated when the first postponement was granted — a death in the family, sudden serious illness, or a natural disaster — and commit to a specific date within six months.²

There is also a separate rule for very small workplaces. If your employer has five or fewer full-time employees and another employee from the same workplace has already been summoned for the same period, the court must postpone your service automatically, and it doesn’t burn your personal postponement.³

Who Can Be Excused or Disqualified

Missouri sets the qualifications statewide. To serve, you must be at least 21, a U.S. citizen, and a resident of St. Louis City. You need to be able to read, speak, and understand English, though the statute makes an exception when a vision or hearing impairment can be addressed with auxiliary aids like sign-language interpreters or assistive listening devices.⁴

You are disqualified entirely if you have a felony conviction and your civil rights have not been restored, if you are on active duty with the armed forces or organized militia under the governor’s orders, or if you are a judge of a court of record. The court can also disqualify anyone it finds incapable of jury duty because of a mental or physical condition; a physician’s verification can excuse that person for up to 24 months.⁴

Even if you qualify, several grounds entitle you to be excused:

You’ve served on a state or federal jury within the past two years.
You are a nursing mother, with a physician’s written certification.
Your absence from work would seriously affect public safety or welfare.
Service would impose extreme physical or financial hardship.
You are a licensed healthcare provider actively treating patients (written statement required).
You are an employee of a religious institution whose faith prohibits jury service.
You are 75 or older.⁵

Where to Report and What to Expect

Jurors report to the Clyde S. Cahill Courts Building at Tucker Boulevard and Market Street in downtown St. Louis. Everyone entering passes through a security checkpoint with metal detectors and bag screening, so leave weapons, knives, and scissors at home or in your car.⁶

The court offers validated free parking at the Kiel Parking Garage on Clark Avenue, next to the Enterprise Center. If you’d rather take transit, the court provides free rides on MetroBus and MetroLink.⁶

Check in at the Jury Assembly Room. You’ll wait until called to a courtroom, and the court expects professional attire — business casual at a minimum, nothing you’d wear to a gym or the beach.

If you aren’t selected for a trial, your service usually wraps up by the end of your reporting day. If you are seated on a jury, most circuit court trials last a few days, though complex cases can run longer, and you serve through the end of the trial.

Disability Accommodations

Under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, state and local courts must provide reasonable accommodations to jurors with disabilities. If you need a sign-language interpreter, an assistive listening device, wheelchair-accessible seating, or large-print materials, contact the Jury Supervisor’s Office as soon as you receive your summons. Setting it up in advance is far easier than sorting it out the morning you report.⁷

What You Get Paid

The 22nd Circuit Court pays $12 per day if you report but aren’t chosen for a trial, and $18 per day if you’re selected and sworn in.⁶ Those rates reflect Missouri’s tiered system: a $6 statutory baseline, plus $6 from the city or county, plus $6 in state reimbursement, for a floor of $18 for sworn jurors.⁸

You also receive mileage reimbursement at the rate Missouri pays its own employees, covering the round trip from your home to the courthouse. Payment is typically processed after your service concludes.⁸

Missouri law also allows counties and cities to adopt an alternative structure — $50 per day starting on the third day of service, with no pay for the first two days. Whether St. Louis City has adopted that option will be reflected in the rate you’re quoted when you report.⁸

Your Job Is Protected

Missouri law prohibits your employer from firing, disciplining, threatening, or taking any adverse action against you because you received or responded to a summons. If your employer violates the rule, you have 90 days from the date of discharge to file a civil lawsuit to recover lost wages, other damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees.³

Your employer also cannot require or even ask you to use vacation, personal, or sick leave for time spent responding to the summons, going through selection, or serving. One boundary to know: if you aren’t already entitled to paid leave under company policy, the statute doesn’t create a new entitlement to paid time off.³

What Happens If You Ignore the Summons

Skipping jury duty isn’t a minor matter in Missouri. If you willfully fail to appear without a valid postponement or excusal, you are in civil contempt of court. The court will issue an order to appear and explain the no-show. After that hearing, the judge can impose a fine of up to $500. The court can also order community service for at least the length of time you would have spent on a jury, either in addition to or instead of the fine.⁹

A judge can waive the sanction for good cause or in the interests of justice, so a missed date isn’t an automatic fine. Counting on that leniency is a bad plan. Responding and asking for a legitimate postponement is always the safer route.

Watch Out for Jury Duty Scams

Scammers routinely impersonate court officials, calling or emailing people to claim they missed jury duty and threatening arrest or fines unless the victim immediately hands over personal information or pays a fee by phone.¹⁰

The 22nd Circuit Court will never ask for sensitive personal information over the phone or by email. Real contact from the court comes through U.S. mail, and legitimate follow-up calls from court staff won’t include requests for Social Security numbers or financial data. If someone contacts you claiming to be from the court and pressures you for information or payment, hang up, then call the Jury Supervisor’s Office directly using the number listed on the court’s official website to check whether anything is actually pending.¹⁰

1
St. Louis 22nd Circuit Court. Jury Duty
2
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 494.432 – Postponement of Jury Duty, When
3
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 494.460 – Employers Prohibited From Disciplining Employees Because of Jury Duty
4
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 494.425 – Persons Ineligible for Jury Service
5
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 494.430 – Persons Entitled to Be Excused From Jury Service
6
St. Louis 22nd Circuit Court. FAQs
7
ADA.gov. Americans with Disabilities Act Title II Regulations
8
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 494.455 – Juror Compensation
9
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 494.450 – Failure to Appear, Penalty
10
United States Courts. Juror Scams