Jury Duty in the District of Columbia: Pay, Exemptions, Excuses and What to Expect (2026)

District of Columbia courts · Last reviewed November 4, 2026

Every D.C. resident who is a U.S. citizen, at least 18, and able to read, speak and understand English can be called to serve on a jury in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Names come from voter rolls, driver's license and ID lists, tax filings and public-benefit records. The Superior Court runs a "one trial or one day" system: if you aren't picked for a trial on your first day, your service is over.

The headline numbers are better than in most places. The court pays $57 a day to jurors whose employer doesn't pay them, and a $7 travel stipend to those who keep their salary. Unlike most states, the District requires most employers of full-time workers to keep paying their usual wages for up to 5 days of jury service. Your employer can't fire or threaten you for serving. A juror who skips service without good cause can be fined up to $300, jailed for up to 7 days, or both.

The rules are in the District of Columbia Jury System Act, D.C. Code §§ 11-1901 to 11-1918, with pay and the employer's wage duty in § 15-718 and details in the Superior Court's Jury Plan. Title 11 is written by Congress, not the D.C. Council. Everything below is current as of November 2026.

District of Columbia jury duty at a glance

Question	Answer	Source
Who can serve	D.C. resident for at least 6 months, U.S. citizen, 18 or older, able to read, speak and understand English	D.C. Code § 11-1906
Disqualified	Physical or mental infirmity that prevents satisfactory service; a pending felony or misdemeanor charge; a felony conviction (eligibility returns 1 year after the sentence ends for trial juries)	§ 11-1906; Jury Plan § 6
Exemptions and excuses	No automatic exemptions by job. The Juror Office excuses, with proof: age 70 or older, a disability, a child under 2.5, service in the past 24 months, non-residents, undue hardship	§ 11-1908; DC Courts: Excusals
Postponing	One deferral of up to 90 days for any reason, online through eJuror; longer or second requests in writing with proof	§ 11-1909; DC Courts: Deferrals
How often you can be called	Not required to serve more than once in any 24-month period	§ 11-1911
How long service lasts	Trial jurors: one day or one trial (trials usually 3 to 5 days). Grand jurors: 25 workdays	DC Courts: About Your Jury Duty
Pay	$57 a day if your employer doesn't pay you; $7 a day travel stipend if it does	§ 15-718; DC Courts: About Your Jury Duty
Mileage and expenses	No mileage; the $7 stipend covers travel for jurors who keep their salary. Fees are paid on a Visa debit card	DC Courts: About Your Jury Duty
Does your employer have to pay you?	Yes, for full-time employees: usual pay, less the court's fee, for up to 5 days. Employers with 10 or fewer employees are exempt	§ 15-718(c)
Job protection	No firing, threats or coercion; criminal contempt for the employer; a lawsuit within 9 months of a firing	§ 11-1913
Penalty for not showing up	Fine up to $300, up to 7 days in jail, or both, after a show-cause hearing	§ 11-1907(b)
Official juror site	DC Courts: Jurors	court

Who can serve

Section 11-1906(b)(1) sets four requirements. You qualify to serve as a juror if you:

are a resident of the District of Columbia, which the Act defines as someone who has lived or been domiciled in D.C. for at least six months (§ 11-1902(10));
are a U.S. citizen;
are at least 18; and
can read, speak and understand English.

Who is disqualified. Under § 11-1906(b)(2), you can't serve if a physical or mental infirmity makes you incapable of satisfactory service, or if you have been convicted of a felony or face a pending felony or misdemeanor charge. A felony conviction isn't a lifetime bar. The statute lets a person with a felony conviction qualify again:

except that an individual disqualified for jury service by reason of a felony conviction may qualify for jury service not less than one year after the completion of the term of incarceration, probation, or parole following appropriate certification under procedures set out in the jury system plan.

The Superior Court's Jury Plan applies that one-year wait to trial (petit) juries and sets a ten-year wait for grand juries, counted from the end of incarceration, probation, supervised release or parole (Jury Plan §§ 6-7). Blindness alone doesn't disqualify anyone, though it may in a particular case where it would prevent satisfactory service (§ 11-1906(b)(4)).

No discrimination. No D.C. citizen may be excluded from a grand or trial jury because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, economic status, marital status, age, or (except as the Act provides) physical handicap (§ 11-1903).

Where names come from. The law requires the voter list and allows other sources (§ 11-1905). The Jury Plan merges registered voters, licensed drivers and non-driver ID holders 18 or older, people who received or filed D.C. income tax forms, people who qualified for public assistance, and newly naturalized citizens (Jury Plan § 2).

Answer the questionnaire. Your summons comes with a juror qualification form, which you must return within five days, online through eJuror or by mail. If you don't, the court can order you to come in and fill it out or to show cause why you shouldn't be held in contempt; failing without good cause can bring a fine of up to $300, up to seven days in jail, or both. Lying on the form to avoid or to get onto a jury can bring up to $300 and 90 days (§ 11-1906(c)-(d)).

Exemptions and excuses

The District's law is strict about this. Section 11-1908(a) says that, apart from the Act's own qualification, exclusion and deferral rules, no person or class of people may be disqualified, excluded, excused or exempt from service. So unlike most states, D.C. has no automatic exemptions for lawyers, doctors, police officers or public officials (§ 11-1908).

In practice, the Superior Court's Juror Office excuses people for a short list of reasons, each with supporting documents (DC Courts: Excusals):

Age 70 or older. The court's page says:

Prospective jurors who are 70 years of age or older may be excluded from jury service upon request; proof of age is required

Physical or mental disability, with a brief explanation and a medical certificate the court can verify.
Recent service in D.C. Superior Court or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia within the past 24 months, with the dates and the name you served under.
Not a D.C. resident, shown by a driver's license, utility bill, voter card, lease or deed.
Caring for a child under two and a half, shown by a copy of the birth certificate.
Undue hardship, meaning extreme inconvenience or public necessity, with an explanation and proof.

How to ask. Send a written request with your documents through eJuror or by email to the Juror Office (JurorHelp at dcsc.gov for trial juries; GrandJurorHelp at dcsc.gov for grand juries). The court says it usually answers in writing within two business days, and it denies requests that lack documents. An excuse can be permanent or for two years.

Breastfeeding. The District has no breastfeeding excuse in law. A bill in Congress would add one (see the changes section below). Parents can use the court's free child care center, and the courthouse has lactation rooms (DC Courts: About Your Jury Duty).

At the courthouse. Once you are on a panel, a judge can still exclude you from a particular jury: for possible bias, for being likely to disrupt the case, on a party's challenge, or to protect the secrecy of deliberations. Being excluded from one jury doesn't stop you from sitting on another (§ 11-1908(b)-(c)).

Postponing jury duty

The statute allows a deferral only for serious reasons. Section 11-1909 says:

A qualified prospective juror may be deferred from jury service only upon a showing of undue hardship, extreme inconvenience, public necessity, or temporary physical or mental disability which would affect service as a juror.

The court's practice is more generous for a first request. According to the Juror Office (DC Courts: Deferrals):

One free deferral. You can postpone once, for any reason and without documents, to a date up to 90 days after your original date.
Same weekday. The new date must fall on the same day of the week as your original summons. You can't pick a federal holiday, D.C. Emancipation Day, or, for trial juries, a Friday.
How. Log in to eJuror, complete the questionnaire, and choose a date from those offered at the end. For a different date, email JurorHelp at dcsc.gov or call 202-879-4604.
Longer or second deferrals need a written request with supporting documents, and the court answers in writing.
It's on you to show up. The court mails a confirmation, but you must report on your new date whether or not it arrives.

The Jury Plan says the new date must also be one on which you can commit to sitting on a trial if picked (Jury Plan § 6).

Juror pay

The District's pay statute still prints old figures. Section 15-718 sets an attendance fee of $30 a day and a travel allowance of up to $2 a day, but subsection (e) lets the Superior Court's Board of Judges raise both and publish the new amounts (§ 15-718). Section 11-1912 caps the rates at what federal jurors are paid (§ 11-1912). The court's current rates, from its Getting Paid page:

Superior Court petit jurors who are unemployed, retired, or whose employer does not pay their full salary while serving are paid $57 daily. Government workers and those paid their full salary while serving will receive a $7 travel stipend during the term of service.

What that means:

$57 a day if you aren't being paid by your job. That covers unemployed and retired jurors and anyone whose employer doesn't pay their full salary.
$7 a day if you are. Government employees, and anyone else whose employer keeps paying full salary, get only the travel stipend. The law bars a separate fee for government workers who keep their regular pay (§ 11-1912(c)).
Ask for an exception in writing. If you think you should get the full fee, the court wants a letter on your employer's letterhead.
Paid by debit card. The court pays on a Visa debit card issued when you check in; cards are good for 18 months. Trial jurors are paid daily and grand jurors weekly.
Unemployment benefits are safe. You don't lose D.C. unemployment benefits because you served on a jury (§ 11-1912(b)).

Your job is protected

D.C. protects jurors in two ways: an employer can't punish you for serving, and most employers of full-time workers must keep paying you for a short stretch.

No firing or threats. Section 11-1913(a) says:

An employer shall not deprive an employee of employment, threaten, or otherwise coerce an employee with respect to employment because the employee receives a summons, responds to a summons, serves as a juror, or attends Court for prospective jury service.

An employer who breaks that rule is guilty of criminal contempt: a fine of up to $300, up to 30 days in jail, or both for a first offense, and up to $5,000, 180 days, or both for a later one. If you are fired, you have 9 months to sue for lost wages, reinstatement and damages, and a winning employee gets reasonable attorney fees (§ 11-1913(b)-(c)).

Paid for up to five days. Section 15-718(c) adds a wage duty that few states have:

For jury service of 5 days or less, petit or grand jurors employed full-time in the District of Columbia shall be entitled to their usual compensation less the fee received for jury service.

The details matter:

Full-time employees in D.C. The duty covers people employed full time in the District.
Less the court's fee. Your employer may subtract what the court pays you.
Only days you would have been paid. A day doesn't count if you wouldn't have earned regular wages that day anyway, or wouldn't have worked more than half of a shift that runs into the next day.
Small employers are exempt. Employers with 10 or fewer employees don't have to pay.
You can sue. An employee who isn't paid can bring a civil action for the lost wages and, on winning, collect reasonable attorney fees (§ 15-718(d)).

The statute speaks of "jury service of 5 days or less" and doesn't say what an employer owes when service runs longer, as it does for a grand jury, which sits for 25 workdays. Tell your employer about a grand jury summons as soon as you get it; the court expects you to (DC Courts: Grand Jury). The Jury Plan encourages private employers to keep paying regular wages throughout jury service as a matter of civic responsibility (Jury Plan § 16).

What happens if you don't show up

Section 11-1907(b) sets the penalty:

A prospective juror who fails to appear for jury duty may be ordered by the Court to appear and show cause why he or she should not be held in contempt for such failure to appear. A prospective juror who fails to show good cause for such failure, or who without good cause fails to appear pursuant to a Court order, may be punished by a fine of not more than $300, by imprisonment for not more than seven days, or both.

The penalty comes after a court process: first an order to appear and explain, then a finding that you had no good cause. The Jury Plan adds that if the court finds a juror won't appear in response to its order, it may issue a warrant for the juror's arrest (Jury Plan § 11). The court's own advice is simple: you must respond to a summons even if you think you can't serve. If an emergency keeps you away, call the Juror Office at 202-879-4604 right away.

Your first day

The Superior Court's juror pages give a clear picture (DC Courts: Jurors; Where to Report):

Respond first. Fill out the juror form on eJuror or return it by mail within five days of getting your summons, even if you plan to reschedule. You need the nine-digit juror number on your summons.
Call the night before. Trial jurors call 202-879-4604 (Option 5) after 5:00 p.m. the day before to see whether they need to come in. Grand jurors don't call in; they report every day.
Where. Trial jurors report to the Juror Office in the Moultrie Courthouse, 500 Indiana Avenue NW, Room 4670, at the time on the summons. Take Metro: the Judiciary Square station on the Red Line (courthouse exit) or Archives on the Green Line. The court warns that parking nearby is expensive and meters are strictly enforced.
What to bring. Your summons, a valid photo ID, any medication you need, bottled water, light snacks and something to read. No weapons or sharp items; everyone goes through security.
Phones are fine. You may bring a phone, tablet or laptop. Bring the charger. The Juror Business Center in the jurors' lounge has free Wi-Fi and desks.
The day. After security you check in, watch an orientation video, and wait for your name to be called for a panel. If you aren't chosen for a trial, or aren't in the middle of jury selection, by the end of the day, your service is over. If you are chosen, you serve until the trial ends; trials usually last three to five days (DC Courts: Petit Jury Service).
Child care. The courts run a free child care center in Room C-100 of the Moultrie Courthouse for toilet-trained children ages 2.5 to 12, on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. with a closed lunch hour. Register ahead with the center's forms (DC Courts: Child Care).
Accommodations. If you have a disability or need an interpreter, say so on your questionnaire and contact the Juror Office at least two weeks before your date. The court offers sign language interpreters, real-time captions, assistive listening devices, large print and escorts at no cost.
Proof for your employer. Log in to eJuror and print your attendance letter.

Grand jury service

Superior Court grand jurors serve for 25 workdays, Monday through Friday, and must report every day; there is no call-in system. A day usually runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with an hour for lunch, and recall days may be added after the term to finish business. Summonses go out 30 to 45 days ahead so you can plan with your employer. Ask early for a deferral or a medical or financial-hardship excuse through the Grand Jury Specialist at (202) 339-1116, GrandJurorHelp at dcsc.gov, or eJuror (DC Courts: Grand Jury). A D.C. grand jury can hear matters headed for either the federal or the D.C. courts (§ 11-1916). Grand jurors are paid the same fees as trial jurors, weekly.

Jury duty scams

Scammers in Washington pose as court officials by email, text and phone. They claim you missed jury duty and have a warrant out, demand that you pay a fine, or send a link to a fake jury form. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia warned residents in June 2025:

The court will never ask for payment, credit card information, or Social Security numbers via phone, email, or text.

Real summonses arrive by postal mail, and a D.C. penalty comes only from a judge after a hearing. If you get one of these messages, don't click, pay or reply. Report it to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and check any summons with the Superior Court's Juror Office at 202-879-4604 or the federal court at 202-354-3360 (U.S. District Court for D.C. scam notice; see also the federal courts' juror scam warning).

Recent and pending changes

The D.C. Council can't change the jury law in title 11; the Home Rule Act bars it from acting on any provision of that title (D.C. Code § 1-206.02(a)(4)). Changes come from Congress, which has three pending bills from Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton:

Introduced	Change	Bill and status
February 24, 2025	Lets people 70 or older be excused on request by statute (now only court practice)	H.R. 1537, the District of Columbia Superior Court Jury Duty for Seniors Opt Out Act of 2025; referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
March 9, 2026	Sets Superior Court juror fees at the federal rates and repeals § 15-718, the section that holds the five-day employer pay rule	H.R. 7881, the District of Columbia Juror Pay Parity Act; referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
March 16, 2026	Lets breastfeeding jurors be excused on request, in Superior Court and in federal courts	H.R. 7946, the Jury Duty Exemption for Breastfeeding Act of 2026; referred to the House Judiciary and Oversight committees

None had moved past committee as of November 2026 (Congress.gov: H.R. 1537, H.R. 7881, H.R. 7946). Watch H.R. 7881 closely if you rely on the five-day pay rule: as written, it would repeal § 15-718 in full.

The last change to § 15-718 came in 2007, when D.C. Law 16-272 added the Board of Judges' power to raise the fee and travel allowance. The court's current $57 and $7 rates rest on that power.

Frequently asked questions

How much does jury duty pay in the District of Columbia?

The D.C. Superior Court pays $57 a day to jurors who are unemployed, retired, or not paid their full salary by their employer. Jurors who keep their full salary, including government workers, get a $7 daily travel stipend instead. The court pays on a Visa debit card.

Can my employer fire me for jury duty in the District of Columbia?

No. D.C. law forbids an employer to fire, threaten or coerce you because you were summoned or served, and an employer who does is guilty of criminal contempt. If you are fired, you have 9 months to sue for lost wages, reinstatement, damages and attorney fees. Most employers with more than 10 workers must also pay full-time employees their usual wages, less the court's fee, for up to 5 days of service.

How do I get out of jury duty in the District of Columbia?

D.C. has no automatic exemptions for any job. The Juror Office will excuse you, with proof, if you are 70 or older, have a disability, care for a child under two and a half, served on a D.C. or federal jury in the past 24 months, don't live in D.C., or face undue hardship. Send your request and documents through eJuror or by email. If you just need a different date, you can defer once for up to 90 days for any reason.

What happens if I miss jury duty in the District of Columbia?

The court can order you to appear and explain why you shouldn't be held in contempt. If you have no good cause, you can be fined up to $300, jailed for up to seven days, or both, and the court may issue a warrant if you ignore its order. If you missed your date by accident, call the Juror Office at 202-879-4604 right away.

How often can you be called for jury duty in the District of Columbia?

You can't be required to serve more than once in any 24-month period, unless the juror list runs short or the court orders it. The court says that after you serve you won't be picked again for two years, and you can ask to be excused if you served in D.C. Superior Court or the federal court in D.C. within the past 24 months.

Is there an age limit for jury duty in the District of Columbia?

You must be at least 18. There's no upper age limit, and the law forbids excluding anyone because of age. In practice, the Juror Office excuses anyone 70 or older who asks and shows proof of age; a pending bill in Congress would write that rule into the statute.

Where these rules live

How this page is sourced. Every legal statement here comes from the District of Columbia statutes, court rules and official court pages it cites and links. Text in block quotes is copied exactly from the official source; everything else is original writing. Pay figures and rules are as of November 4, 2026.

This page explains what the law says. It is legal information, not legal advice. Your summons and your court’s jury office have the final word on your service — if you are unsure what to do, call the number on your summons.