Upscale Communities Provide Ticket Out of Civic Duty : Justice: Court rules give Del Mar, Solana Beach and Rancho Santa Fe residents easy way to avoid jury duty.

In Del Mar, Solana Beach and Rancho Santa Fe, it’s all there for the asking.

The three North County communities offer fine dining, tasteful shopping, nearby beaches, gracious estates shaded by redolent eucalyptus groves--and, because of a legal and geographical quirk, an iron-clad, no-questions-asked, absolutely guaranteed way out of jury service at the Vista courthouse.

Any resident more than 25 miles from the courthouse is freed from jury duty, just for the asking, a policy intended to exempt residents in the county’s small rural communities. But, according to the county, it’s that far or more to the Vista courthouse from Del Mar, Solana Beach and Rancho Santa Fe--though those figures may be way off base.

Last week, a Solana Beach attorney, who asked to remain unnamed, discovered the fine print in the county’s court rules, cited the 25-mile rule to county officials, and was promptly exempted from this week’s service.

Officials at the Office of the Jury Commissioner, the county’s jury service, said they do not keep track of how many people get out of jury duty through the technicality.

“In reality, it could affect a lot of folks,” but now does not since the rule is not well known, chief deputy Neal Methvin said.

Most people, said Gerry Stevens, the county’s assistant jury commissioner, simply want to do their civic duty.

In fiscal year 1991, which ended last June 30, the county summoned 329,543 people to jury duty in the Superior and Municipal courts, she said. Of those, 80,870 were called to the Vista courthouse, she said.

The county calls jurors for both the Superior and Municipal courts from lists it compiles of registered drivers and voters, who are chosen at random, Stevens said. “Many people travel 60, 70 miles and seem willing to do it, just for the opportunity of serving on a jury,” Stevens said.

The 25-mile rule is a product of the fact that San Diego County is one of the largest counties in the nation. It sprawls across 4,255 square miles, including 76 miles of shoreline, 6,000-foot mountain ranges and half a million acres of desert.

Because there are so many small communities in the county’s outlying reaches that are so far away from the courts, the rule for years has been that anyone who is 25 miles away from the court that has summoned them can be granted an automatic exemption, Stevens said.

The rule demands only that the person summoned ask for an exemption under the 25-mile limit, she said. Driving more than that one way is considered “an undue hardship,” according to the rule.

For instance, anyone in Borrego Springs, in the desert 75 miles north and east of Vista, can be exempted, Stevens said.

Because the county is so big, the courts are spread around four sites--in downtown San Diego, to the north in Vista, to the east in El Cajon and to the south in Chula Vista. But the 25-mile rule is the same, no matter which court is the one asking for jurors.

It’s 42 miles from the eastern mountain town of Julian to the nearest court, in El Cajon, Stevens said. It’s 61 miles from Julian to the downtown San Diego courthouse, she said. In either case, a Julian resident can beg off, she said.

With a 1990 Census count of 1,284 people, though, Julian just can’t offer that many jurors to the courts.

The Vista court draws jurors from Del Mar north to Oceanside and from the shore east throughout North County, as far as Borrego Springs, Stevens said.

At the Vista court, the 25-mile rule is potentially more meaningful along the coast--where Del Mar is home to 4,860 people, Solana Beach to 12,962, and in Rancho Santa Fe, an unincorporated area a few miles north and east of those two towns that counts about 4,200 people.

According to the Office of the Jury Commissioner, Del Mar is 27 miles from the Vista courthouse, Solana Beach is 26 and Rancho Santa Fe is 25 miles.

Since Rancho Santa Fe is precisely at the 25-mile limit, residents there are not granted an automatic exemption, Stevens said. Instead, they must swear to the actual precise figure--from their house to the courthouse--before the exemption can kick in, Stevens said.

The county tables were computed “years ago” by an in-house department, Electronic Data Processing Services, which figured the mileage totals by connecting a point in one ZIP code to a point in another ZIP code, Stevens said. That agency ceased to exist three years ago.

Vicky Pion, deputy director of its successor, the county Department of Information Services, said Tuesday that the mileage tables are probably 20 years old and distances “probably have changed, given the freeways.”

She said her technicians can now calculate distances precisely through computers. The agency will immediately begin a review of the mileage tables, she said Tuesday.

According to Junes Attorney Service, which has its own mileage tables for process servers, it’s 26.8 miles from the Vista courthouse to the interchange on Interstate 5 at Via de la Valle, the border between Solana Beach and Del Mar.

It remains unclear, however, whether the county’s figures are suspect.

It’s 25 miles from Del Mar to the downtown San Diego courthouse, according to the Office of Jury Commissioner. The Thomas Guide series of maps, however, reports that it’s only 18.5 miles from Del Mar to the downtown San Diego Civic Center, just a couple of blocks from the courthouse.

A juror from Del Mar, even one desperate to serve in San Diego, cannot be transferred there from the Vista pool, Stevens said.

The four courts spread around the county are “entities unto themselves,” Stevens said. “It would be like trying to mingle Ford and General Motors. There are specific draws for each of the judicial districts. There is no commingling or transferring.”

This is where things get really confusing, Stevens said. Unlike the Vista, El Cajon and Chula Vista courts, which draw from distinct districts within the county, the San Diego court draws from all around the county.

So, although there are no transfers to San Diego, there is a separate San Diego list, she said. It’s quite possible--though not probable--to be on the list for jury service at an outlying court and at the downtown court, she said. And an exemption from jury service at an outlying court has no effect on a separate call for jury duty in San Diego, she said.

In that case, the 25-mile rule has to be looked at anew, she said.

If that doesn’t work, there’s always the other automatic excuse: jury service somewhere else in California within the past three years earns an exemption, too.

“If all this doesn’t confuse them all, nothing ever will,” Stevens said.