Jury duty during ESD unemployment - will I still get paid benefits?

This happened to me last year. You DO still qualify for unemployment while on jury duty but you have to report the jury duty pay as earnings when you file your weekly claim. Keep claiming as usual!

According to ESD rules, jury duty is considered a temporary interruption of your availability, but you're still eligible for benefits. You must report any payment received from jury duty when filing weekly claims. Here's the important part: you are EXEMPT from job search requirements while serving on jury duty! Make sure to keep documentation of your jury service dates to prove you were unavailable for those specific days.

whn i had jury duty i still got my benafits but the esd lady said i HAD to keep doing job search even sitting in court all day. was a pain but i did it on lunch breaks. better safe than sorry imo

I work with unemployment claims regularly, and this is a frequent question. Here's the official answer: Jury duty is considered a TEMPORARY EXEMPTION from the availability requirements. During jury duty: 1. You must report any jury duty pay as earnings on your weekly claim 2. You are still required to complete job search activities unless you specifically request and receive a job search exemption 3. You should call ESD and request this exemption, explaining you're on jury duty Document everything! Keep copies of your jury summons and service verification.

If you're having trouble getting through to ESD about this, try Claimyr (claimyr.com). I was in a similar situation last month and couldn't get anyone on the phone for days. Claimyr got me connected to an ESD agent in about 30 minutes who confirmed I could get a job search exemption for my jury duty week. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3. Way better than spending hours on hold!

Update: I called ESD this morning (took forever) and finally got through. The agent told me: 1. I DO need to report jury duty pay as earnings 2. I CAN request a job search exemption specifically for the days I'm in court 3. I should upload my jury summons to my ESD account as verification She also said if my jury duty extends beyond 4 days, I should request the exemption in writing through my eServices account. Thanks everyone for your help!

THE EXACT SAME THING happened to me last year and I ended up with an overpayment notice because I misunderstood how to report jury duty!!! I thought I didn't have to report the $10/day stipend since it's so small. BIG MISTAKE. ESD is so confusing and the website doesn't explain ANY of this clearly. Now I'm paying back $780 because of their terrible instructions!!!

my cousin got jury duty during unemployment and he just told them he couldn't serve because he was looking for work and they excused him. might be worth a try if you dont wanna deal with all this ESD confusion

Just wanted to add another perspective here - I served on a 3-week trial while on unemployment last fall. The key things that worked for me: 1) Call ESD BEFORE jury duty starts to request the job search exemption (don't wait until you're already serving), 2) Report every penny of jury pay including mileage reimbursement if they give it, and 3) Keep your jury service certificate - ESD may ask for it later during an audit. Also heads up that some employers actually pay the difference between your jury stipend and regular wages, so if you get hired during this time, ask about that policy. The whole process was actually smoother than I expected once I got the exemption approved upfront.