This paper reports the first measurement of the effective B-S(0) -> J/psi K-S(0) lifetime and an updated measurement of its time-integrated branching fraction. Both measurements are performed with a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb(-1) of pp collisions, recorded by the LHCb experiment in 2011 at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The results are: tau(eff)(J/psi KS0) = 1.75 +/- 0.12 (stat) +/- 0.07 (syst) ps and B(B-S(0) -> J/psi K-S(0)) = (1.97 +/- 0.23) x 10(-5). For the latter measurement, the uncertainty includes both statistical and systematic sources. (C) 2013 CERN. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.