™How to Postpone Jury Duty in L.A., and When the $15 Pay Starts
State court rules back a one-time postponement, the first day pays nothing, and the $15 daily fee starts on day two.
You can postpone jury duty in Los Angeles County once, and California's court rules say the jury office should grant it.
Rule 2.1004(a) of the California Rules of Court tells the jury commissioner to accommodate a juror's schedule by granting "a one-time deferral of jury service," as laid out in the Superior Court summons and the rules behind it. Put the request on paper and sign it under penalty of perjury, or file it on the court's online system, and the commissioner shouldn't make you show up in person to ask.
So the number the rules back is one. The Judicial Council's statewide juror page doesn't promise a second, so if you need another, take it up with the court's Juror Services Division at (213) 972-0970.
The exception is a breastfeeding mother. She can ask on the summons response form to defer for up to a year, the Judicial Council says, and rule 2.1006 lets her renew that request for as long as she's breastfeeding.
The first day is a smaller commitment than the envelope makes it look. The L.A. summons puts you on call for five days in a row, and you check your reporting instructions every day by phone or online.
California runs on one day or one trial. If you report and aren't sent to a courtroom for jury selection, your service is typically over for at least a year, according to the Judicial Council, and most people who report serve only that one day.
The state's page doesn't give a time when the first day ends. Its advice for the waiting is to bring a book. Get called up for jury selection and you stay until a jury's chosen or the jury commissioner lets you go. If you're picked, you're there until the trial ends, and the Judicial Council says most trials finish within a week.
That first day pays nothing. Starting on day two, you get $15 a day plus 34 cents for every mile to court and back. The Legislature set those rates in Code of Civil Procedure section 215 for service on and after July 1, 2000, and they're still the rates on the Judicial Council's page as of Thursday.
Transit works differently. Public transit reimbursement, up to $12 a day, starts on the first day, while mileage doesn't start until the second. Government employees who get their full pay and benefits while serving don't get the $15, though they still get mileage.
As for when the money shows up, the state page gives no date. It tells jurors to ask their local jury office how that court handles payment.
If you're postponing, do it in this order:
- Register first, by phone at (213) 972-0970 or online at lacourt.org/jury, even if you plan to postpone. The court's summons instructions say you must register first. Keep the juror ID number and PIN printed on the form.
- Ask for a postponement, not an excuse. Under rule 2.1008(b), inconvenience to you or your employer isn't enough to get you excused, but it "may be considered a ground for deferral."
- Give the earliest date you can actually serve, as the Judicial Council asks.
- Get it all done before the cutoff: 4:30 p.m. the Friday ahead of your week of service. After that, the court's notice says, it can't process a postponement, transfer or excuse.
Miss that cutoff and your week stands: you're on call, and you check in every day. Ignore the summons altogether and the law lays out what comes next: a second summons, a notice that you failed to appear, and an order to come explain yourself to a judge. Fines can reach $1,500, and under section 209, paying one doesn't get you out of serving.
Source: State of California, retrieved November 13, 2026.
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