How to get a job as a court marshal (alguacil) in Puerto Rico's Judicial Branch

What a court marshal does

The Judicial Branch defines it this way: marshals are court officers who keep security and order in the courthouses and enforce judges' orders. That second part is what people do not picture. A marshal does not spend the day at the building's door: they serve orders in the community, summon parties, arrest accused persons, serve civil defendants, attach property, carry out evictions and sell attached goods at public auction.

They also guard and transport inmates who must appear, attend to jury members (and if a jury is sequestered, the marshal keeps it isolated), guide the public in the Investigations Courtrooms, and respond to emergencies in the building: bomb threats, riots, hostage situations, protests. There is also a Special Marshals Unit (UEA) for guarding dangerous inmates and threatened judges, and for mass evictions.

The announcement says it plainly: it is high-risk work, done while carrying a firearm, and it demands a fast response. If what you want is an office job inside the courthouse, those exist (assistant clerk, office systems technician), but this is not one of them.

The requirements, as the Judicial Branch publishes them

For the Deputy Marshal (Alguacil Auxiliar) class, which is the entry class, the Office of Court Administration (OAT) publishes two requirements and a list of conditions. This comes from announcement PJ-12-25 and the official marshals page:

• Minimum requirement: a bachelor's degree from an accredited university. No specific major is required.
• Special requirement: a current driver's licence issued by the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP).
• Physical condition to stand for long periods, run, climb and descend stairs quickly, repel attacks and subdue people by physical force if needed.
• Availability for overtime and irregular shifts. In the Investigations Courtrooms, the previous announcement (PJ 05-24) required rotating shifts, Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and night shifts.
• If you are recommended for the position, you go through medical, physical-fitness and psychological evaluations and a character and reputation investigation. An unfavourable result removes you from the Eligibility Register, though you may apply again at the next announcement.
• No age limit and no prior firearms licence are published in the Deputy Marshal announcement. If that changes, the posting will say so: confirm it in the current announcement.

The process, step by step

The Judicial Branch does not recruit continuously. It publishes an Open Competition Exam Announcement, with a number (PJ-05-24, PJ-12-25) and a deadline, and accepts applications only within that window. Open announcements are listed at poderjudicial.pr/empleos and mirrored on empleos.pr.gov; as of this guide the only visible Deputy Marshal announcement is the Vieques one, open until further notice.

• 1. Read the full announcement and note its number. The documents it asks for are the only ones that count.
• 2. Complete Exam Application OAT-495. It is a Judicial Branch form, not the empleos.pr.gov application. A resume does not replace it: the announcement states that resumes and faxes are not official documents.
• 3. In Section 3, box 16, list the towns where you accept employment, one by one. The announcement rejects the word “all”. If you want an Investigations Courtroom, say so.
• 4. Gather the attachments: a legible copy of your transcript showing the degree conferred (internet printouts are not accepted), a copy of your driver's licence and, if you will claim experience, an official certification from each employer.
• 5. Mail it to the Classification and Recruitment Division, PO Box 190917, San Juan, PR 00919-0917, or hand it in at OAT, 268 Luis Muñoz Rivera Ave., Hato Rey. Questions: (787) 641-6600, ext. 5217.
• 6. Wait for your score. If you make the Eligibility Register and are recommended, the medical, physical and psychological evaluations and the background investigation follow. Then the appointment and a twelve-month probationary period.

The exam is your paperwork: 70, 20 and 10

There is no written test and no appointment to sit an exam. The announcement calls it a “no-show exam”: points are awarded for the education and experience you document with the application. The relative weights are published: 70 points for meeting the minimum requirements, 20 for additional experience and 10 for additional education.

Experience counts only when certified the way the announcement requires: position held, exact start and end dates (day, month and year), description of duties and, if part-time, the daily or weekly hours. It is credited at 7½ hours a day. Experience under a professional-services contract is shown with copies of the contracts. Anything not certified that way receives no points, even if it is true.

Statutory preferences are added to the final score: ten points for any veteran with an honourable discharge (Form DD-214) and five points for a qualified person with a disability under Act 81-1996, which do not stack.

As for training: a marshal works armed and under the court's own conduct rules, so the Judicial Branch trains whoever it appoints. The public announcement does not describe the length or location of that training, so confirm it in the announcement or ask when you are summoned to the evaluations.

Pay and benefits: what is published

Announcement PJ-12-25 publishes a salary scale of $2,809 to $5,113 a month for Deputy Marshal. Someone coming in from outside receives the class minimum; if you already hold a career position in the Executive Branch, your current salary is used as the reference to calculate the new one. That minimum comes from the Judicial Branch's revised Compensation Plan, in force since 1 July 2023 after the Fiscal Oversight Board's approval.

What the announcement does not publish are night-shift differentials, overtime pay or the specific fringe benefits. The Judicial Branch has its own personnel system, separate from the Executive Branch, so do not assume another agency's rules apply: confirm it in the announcement and in the appointment letter.

One warning: the title “alguacil” also exists outside the Judicial Branch. The Child Support Administration (ASUME) announced an Alguacil position in October 2026 at $28,500 a year, high school plus three years of security experience (or an associate degree in criminal justice plus one year), and a firearms licence before the end of probation. They are different jobs, with different requirements and pay. Check which agency the position belongs to before you prepare.

Common mistakes when applying

• Sending a resume instead of the OAT-495, or the OAT-495 without attachments. The announcement says that without the documents in item 2 the application is not accepted for evaluation. There is no second chance within the same deadline.
• An internet-printed transcript. Request the official one from your university early: the registrar can take weeks.
• Writing “all towns”. It is rejected. Make the list, and think honestly about whether you would go to Vieques or Utuado, because you will sign it.
• Experience letters without exact dates or hours. A letter that says “worked with us for several years” is worth zero points.
• Confusing the Judicial Branch position with ASUME's or with private security guard work. The requirements are nothing alike.
• Preparing only for the score and forgetting what comes next: the physical evaluation and the character investigation remove you from the register just as an incomplete application does.

Where to apply and how to hear about the next announcement

There is a single source: the jobs section of poderjudicial.pr, where OAT publishes each announcement with its PDF, form OAT-495 and the list of documents. Empleos.pr.gov mirrors the same announcements under the same number. When a new island-wide Deputy Marshal announcement comes out, it will appear on both sites and we pick it up in our search.

If you would rather not keep checking, create an alert on our site with the word “alguacil” and it reaches your inbox when one comes in. Meanwhile, get ahead on what takes time: the official transcript, the driver's licence renewal and the experience certifications with exact dates. None of that depends on an open announcement.