Policy Text
Page 1 of 8 8/05 (REV 5/89)
Jury Duty
The purpose of this General Order is to provide procedures for employees of the
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Depar tment receiving notification o f pending jury selection
and/or duty. I. Policy Summary
To qualify for jury duty time o ff, employees must give their i mmediate supervisor
a copy of the written notice to report to jury duty. Regular employees are allowed
jury duty time off with pay pro vided that jury duty fees are r emitted to the County.
An employee who uses leave bal ances other than sick leave whil e on jury duty is
not required to remit jury fees . (Note: This policy does not cover leave time to
appear as a witness under a court subpoena.) II. Exemptions
A. Effective January 1, 1989, t here is no longer an absolute e xemption from
jury duty for peace officers a s defined in Section 830.1 and Subdivision
(A) of Section 830.2 of the Penal Code. B. Section 219 of the Code of Civil Procedure states, “No peac e officer as
defined by Section 830.1 and S ubdivision (A) of Section 830.2 of the
Penal Code, shall be selected fo r voir dire in a criminal cas e.”
C. Peace officers, however, are still subject to jury duty on civil cases.
III. Questionnaire
A. Prior to being placed on jury certification list, prospecti ve jurors will receive
a questionnaire for the purposes of determining their eligibi lity.
B. All employees shall advise t heir immediate supervisor upon receipt of the
questionnaire. Supervisors shall then advise the division co mmander for
future reference. IV. Definitions
Regular Employee: Any officer or employee who occupies a perm anent position,
whether part time or full time, establish ed in accordance with the annual salary
Page 2 of 8 8/05 (REV 5/89) resolution, or any such employee who temporarily transfers to a temporary
position. (See Personnel Ordi nance, Section 2.78.276 for full definition.)
V. Summons
A summons notice requires t he appearance of the employee to se rve as a juror,
generally within a 7 to 10 day period.
A. Immediately upon receipt of t he summons, employees shall pr ovide their
immediate supervisor with a copy of the written summons with the date(s)
and time(s) they are to appear for jury duty. B. Supervisors shall advise the division commander, indicating any conflict
between the court appearance an d the staffing needs of the De partment.
VI. Standards of Application
A. Eligibility: Only regular emp loyees are eligible for paid time off while
serving on jury duty. B. Within the first week of repor ting for jury duty, employees must submit
evidence of the per diem fee paid for jury duty. Most court summons
indicate the per diem jury duty fee. VII. Attendance Records
A. When submitting biweekly time sheets, employees also must su bmit
original attendance records pr ovided by the Jury Commissioner of
Municipal and Superio r Courts or Clerk of the Federal Courts.
(Photocopies are not acceptable.) B. Operating department personnel monitor all documents verify ing an
employee’s jury duty time off . Attendance records are compar ed against
the amount of jury duty time of f an employee claims on the ti mesheet.
C. Jury duty attendance records are retained in the employee’s departmental
time and attendance file until ju ry duty fees have been remit ted and
processed by the operating department. VIII. Remittance and Non-Remittance
A. To claim jury duty time off, the employee must remit jury duty fees to the
County within six weeks of returning to work.
B. If the employee does not rem it jury duty f ees to the County within six
weeks of returning to work, j ury duty time off is changed to vacation,
compensating time off, or holiday in lieu hours.
Page 3 of 8 8/05 (REV 5/89) C. If the employee does not rem it jury duty f ees and has no le ave balances,
the overpayment is debited from the employee’s paycheck and n oted as a
deduction on the paycheck stub. IX. Work Scheduling
A. An employee who is scheduled to work swing or graveyard shi ft may be
excused from work while serving jury duty at the discretion o f the
appointing authorit y depending on the need s of the Department .
B. Overtime is time paid in e xcess of the employee’s normally scheduled shift
per day or forty hours per week . If the employee must work b ecause of
the needs of the Department, the jury duty hours will be coun ted in
determining overtime. C. If eligible, the employee wil l be compensated at the overti me rate that
applies to the class. D. An employee is not compensat ed for serving ju ry duty on a s cheduled day
off. Neither is the employee re quired to remit jury fees for any jury duty
served on a scheduled day off. Therefore, t hose hours will n ot be counted
in determining overtime. X. Procedures
A. When called to jury duty, t he employee provi