Sheriff’s satellite office in Lodi handles evictions, restraining orders and more
After more than a decade, the San Joaquin County Sheriff ’s Office Civil Division in June returned from the main office in French Camp to a brown building with white trim on North Lee Avenue in Lodi to process the service of court orders such as eviction notices, restraining orders, money judgments and more.
“This office has been open since June 11, but it’s definitely been in the works for a couple of years. We were finally fully staffed in the civil division to send a clerk out here,” Marisa McKee, a senior office assistant at the civil division’s main office, said on Wednesday. “This way, people living in Acampo don’t have to drive an hour to French Camp to obtain those services.”
Capt. David Oliver, who oversees the civil division as well as the deputies who work at the Lodi courthouse, said the building they now share has housed the civil division in the past, but was closed more than a decade ago due to budget constraints.
“I’ve been here for 31 years, but this place hasn’t been open since 2004,” Oliver said.
Originally scheduled for 2015 when the San Joaquin County Superior Court reopened its Lodi branch, Oliver said the civil division’s relocation was postponed for a few years due to a shortage of staff, as McKee said, and that the old building that was once part of a church is still being remodeled.
“This is all going to get changed here come Friday,” Oliver said.
Ashley Muster, the only senior office assistant currently working at the Lodi office, said that many of the people she helps have enjoyed the relocation as much as she has.
“I love it, it’s a totally different scene,” Muster said. “It’s been really well received, a lot of our regulars they love it because of the convenience factor.”
Because the civil division primarily acts as a middleman for processing court documents, McKee said they do not have much overlap with law enforcement officers such as sheriff’s deputies or the Lodi Police Department besides giving officers advice on serving documents such as eviction notices or restraining orders.
“A lot of the time, we have deputies in the field who need assistance or clarification with a civil matter,” McKee said.
“There isn’t really a lot of cross over between civil and criminal (divisions) besides that,” Oliver said.
Although the civil division provides a number of services for the county’s residents, McKee said there are still a few that they do not provide.
“We are not attorneys, we do not provide legal advice,” McKee said. “That’s probably the biggest misconception people have about us.”
The San Joaquin County Sheriff ’s Office Civil Division, 114 N. Lee Ave., Lodi, is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, except for holidays, and is closed for lunch from noon to 1 p.m. For more information on services provided by the division, call 209-331-2136 during business hours or visit