What Disqualifies You From Jury Duty in Texas?

What disqualifies you from jury duty in Texas is spelled out in Chapter 62 of the Texas Government Code, which lists eight automatic disqualifications: you are not a U.S. citizen, you don’t live in the state and county that summoned you, you are under 18, you are not of sound mind or good moral character, you cannot read and write, you have been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor theft, you are under indictment or formal accusation for either of those offenses, or you recently served as a petit juror. Separate from those bars, Texas allows nine statutory exemptions you can choose to claim, and a judge can excuse you for a medical condition or personal hardship on top of that.

The Eight Automatic Disqualifications

These are not optional. If any of them applies, you cannot serve on a Texas petit jury even if you want to.¹

You are not a U.S. citizen. Citizenship is required.
You don’t live in Texas or in the summoning county. Both are required. A Texas resident summoned in a county where they no longer live is disqualified in that county.
You are under 18. You must be at least 18 on the date of service.
You are not of sound mind or good moral character. The court decides this, and it rarely surfaces at the summons stage.
You cannot read and write. Basic English literacy is required.
You have been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor theft. Either conviction disqualifies you.
You are under indictment or formal accusation for a felony or misdemeanor theft. Pending charges disqualify you even before any conviction.
You served recently as a petit juror. Six days of service within the past three months disqualifies you for county court cases; the window is six months for district court cases.

A Closer Look at the Felony Bar

The statute disqualifies anyone who “has been convicted” of a felony or misdemeanor theft. Some people who have received a pardon or had a conviction set aside may regain eligibility, but Section 62.102 itself does not lay out a restoration process. If you have a past felony and believe your civil rights have been restored, call the court listed on your summons before assuming you qualify. Do not simply appear and hope the issue does not come up.

Exemptions You Can Choose to Claim

Exemptions are different from disqualifications. If an exemption applies, you get to decide: claim it and skip service, or ignore it and serve anyway. Texas lists nine of them in Section 62.106.²

You are 75 or older. You can claim it one summons at a time or ask for a permanent exemption so no future summons arrives.³
You have legal custody of a child under 12 and serving would leave the child without adequate supervision.
You are a student. This covers public and private high school students and anyone enrolled and actively attending a college or university.
You work for the legislative branch. Officers and employees of the Texas Senate, House, or any legislative agency are exempt.
You are the primary caretaker of a person who cannot care for themselves. This does not apply if you serve in that role only as a paid health care worker.
You are on active-duty military service deployed outside your home station and outside your county of residence.
You served as a petit juror in the past 24 months in a county of 200,000 or more.
You served as a petit juror in the past three years in a county of 250,000 or more, unless the jury wheel has been reconstituted since then.

The prior-service exemptions are the ones most people miss. In Harris, Dallas, Bexar, or another large county, a summons that arrives within two or three years of your last service is an automatic out if you want it.

Getting Excused for a Medical Condition or Hardship

Even if nothing on the two lists above fits, a judge still has authority to release you.

Physical or Mental Impairment

Section 62.109 lets a district court judge exempt you permanently or temporarily if you have a physical or mental impairment, or an inability to communicate in English, that makes serving impossible or extremely difficult.³ Contact the judge or court identified on your summons. Expect to provide medical documentation, though the statute does not specify a form.

Personal Hardship

Under Section 62.110, a judge can hear any reasonable sworn excuse and either release you or reschedule your service. This is the catch-all for a pre-booked trip, a family emergency, or a work deadline that will not move.³

One limit matters here. A judge cannot excuse you for a purely economic reason like lost wages or business income unless every party in the case agrees. That rule keeps jury pools from tilting toward people who can afford to miss work. Rescheduling is often the outcome rather than a full release, so a hardship request may push service to a better date rather than end it.

Grand Jury Service Has Stricter Rules

Everything above governs petit juries, which decide trials. Grand juries, which review evidence and vote on indictments, run under Article 19A.101 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and use a tighter set of rules.⁴ The key differences:

A felony or misdemeanor theft conviction is a permanent bar. The statute requires that a grand juror have “never been convicted.” There is no restoration pathway written into the rule.
You must be qualified to vote in the county where the grand jury sits, whether or not you are actually registered.
Close relatives cannot serve on the same panel. You are disqualified if you are related within the third degree by blood or the second degree by marriage to another member of that grand jury.
Recent grand jury service disqualifies you. Serving on a grand jury within the past year knocks you out.

If a grand jury summons arrives and you have a prior felony conviction from any point in your life, you are disqualified. Contact the court immediately so they can remove you from the pool.

How to Flag a Disqualification or Exemption

Your summons will include a form with checkboxes for each disqualification and each exemption. Check the box that applies, sign the form, and return it to the district clerk’s office by the deadline printed on the summons. If your situation does not fit a checkbox, such as a medical issue or a scheduling conflict, use the phone number and mailing address on the summons to contact the court directly.

What Happens If You Ignore the Summons

Tossing a jury summons is a worse gamble than most people assume. Failing to comply with a summons, or knowingly giving false information to claim an exemption, carries a contempt fine of $100 to $1,000.⁵ A separate statute adds a $100 to $500 fine for any juror who fails to appear without a reasonable excuse or files a false exemption claim.⁶ Most Texas courts start with a letter or an order to show cause before issuing a fine, giving you a chance to explain yourself. Judges have wide discretion, and “I didn’t feel like going” is not a reasonable excuse.

1
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 62.102 – General Qualifications for Jury Service
2
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 62.106 – Exemption From Jury Service
3
Texas Judicial Branch. Jury Service in Texas
4
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 19A – Grand Jury Organization
5
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 62.0141 – Failure to Answer Jury Summons
6
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Chapter 62 – Petit Juries