California Jury Service May 2026

You are summoned. Not by a king, not by a draft board, but by an envelope with a return address that looks vaguely like a parking ticket. Inside: your barcode. Your fate, reduced to a QR code.

“Group 4, to Department 23.”

You feel the collective soul of the room depart for the beach. The lawyers speak a language of objections and stipulations. Voir dire begins. The questions are gentle scalpels: Can you be fair? Do you believe in physics? Have you ever slipped? Have you ever fallen? Have you ever looked at a wet floor sign and thought, that’s a challenge ? california jury service