UCLA

I. REFERENCES

1. Staff Personnel Policy Section 425.3, Jury Duty and Grand Jury Duty, 11/1/1980;

2. The CALL--UCLA Summary of Policy--Academic Personnel: Appendix 16.

II. BACKGROUND

California law governing jury service requires that former campus policy be modified. This campus procedure applies to both academic and staff personnel.

The former California law included a number of categorical exemptions from service, but now all of these have been eliminated. The primary effect of this change at UCLA is that the exemption for teachers has been removed. There is now only one encompassing excuse from jury service, which is:

The Court shall excuse a person from jury service upon finding that the jury service would entail undue hardship on the person or the public serviced by the person.

III. GENERAL POLICY

The University of California continues to hold the view that jury service is a public responsibility which University personnel should meet. There are cases, however, when absence from University duties would work a great hardship on the University. In such a case, it is the employee's responsibility to seek excuse from service; the University can do no more than assist in such a case and may supply the employee with a letter describing the nature of the hardship and requesting excuse (refer to Section IV below). The University cannot guarantee that a request for excuse will be accepted, and it is likely that any excuse granted will take the form of a deferment until arrangements can be made to avoid the hardship. For assistance in preparing a hardship letter, contact the Office of Campus Counsel .

It should be noted that departments must require written verification of actual jury service from personnel returning from jury service. A sample verification form is provided in Attachment A.

IV. PROCEDURES

V. ATTACHMENTS