Learn about the Civil Grand Jury

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Civil Grand Jury, you must:

• Be a US citizenship
• Be age 18 or older
• Be a Resident in the City & County of San Francisco for at least 1 year
• Have ordinary intelligence
• Have good character
• Have working knowledge of English

Exceptions

You cannot serve if you:

• Have been discharged from the grand jury within 1 year
• Are currently serving on a trial jury
• Are elected public officials
• Have been convicted of a felony

Selection process

Our selection process includes these steps:

1. Individuals may be recommended by the Judges of the Superior Court or may volunteer to serve.
2. A group of Superior Court Judges interview each applicant.
3. We then place qualified applications in a pool and randomly select 19 as Grand Jurors.
4. We also select an additional 11 individuals as alternates. They may be sworn during the term if there is a vacancy.

Term

Civil Grand Jurors are appointed by the Superior Court to serve a 1-year term, from July 1 through June 30.

During the term, grand jurors serve a minimum of approximately 500 hours.

Meeting schedule

The jury meets weekly on Monday evenings from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. Meetings take place at San Francisco City Hall at 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco.

Most committee work takes place during regular working hours.

Disclosures

If you are selected as a juror, you must by law:

• Disclose all investments and business positions in and/or income from any entity that has conducted business within the City & County in the previous 2 years
• Disclose income from all employees of the City and County
• Disclose all interests in real property. These become matters of public record.