Amy Kaulius

Review of Superior Court of California, ...

In regards to my experience with jury duty at the ...

In regards to my experience with jury duty at the Central Justice Center...

Follow the signs for where jurors need to park (Stadium parking structure). When you exit the parking structure and get to the street, turn right and walk about a block to the Central Justice Center building. I went the wrong way and ended up frustrated.

It is true that they don't start right on time at 7:45am. However, on my jury day, they did start orientation at 8:15am. If you miss the orientation, it's really no big deal as you can grab a brochure by the door to the jury lobby, and it will explain everything they went over in orientation.

Our morning started by them calling a "morning break" immediately after the orientation. It was for 30 minutes and we were free to go wherever we wanted during that 30 minutes. I grabbed breakfast in the cafeteria, which is right outside of the jury lobby.

The jury assembly hall is a HUGE waiting room with lots of tables and chairs. There are six monitors throughout the room for watching the orientation and also later they play TV shows and movies. The temperature is pretty comfortable for the most part. I brought a zip-up sweater and I was somewhat glad I did. You can watch TV, work on your laptop, and you can even take phone calls in the jury assembly hall, although you should try to speak quietly as not to disturb the people sitting next to you.

Shortly after our morning break, they made an announcement for all jurors to return to the jury lobby for an important announcement. So if you are in the cafeteria at that point or outside in the patio area (smokers go here), you can return easily because it's just a few steps away.

At 9:38am they started calling names for people who would need to report to various court rooms. The names are generated by random selection based on the jurors in attendance that day. They announce the names alphabetically, so you know when to specifically pay attention. They called names for three different court room assignments, and about 2/3 of the people in the jury assembly hall did get called and they all left to go to the courtrooms. I was not one of them. From there, they told the rest of us that we were on standby until another court room needed jurors. Being on standby simply means that you can go to the cafeteria, bathroom, etc, but you need to stay in the general vicinity of the juror assembly hall.

In the juror assembly hall, the tables on the perimeter of the room are the only ones that have power outlets on or near them. Some have a power strip / surge protector, so you can have multiple things plugged into it. If you end up with one of the mini-cubicles on the side walls, note that the outlet is buried deep within the desk, so if you have something with a large plug, it will not fit. Bring a short extension cord.

I experienced no problems with the WiFi at all and worked all day on my laptop.

By lunch time, there still weren't any courtrooms that needed jurors, so we were all excused for lunch. They gave us an hour and a half! I ended up walking to a Brazilian restaurant called Mil Jugos in downtown Santa Ana. It was about a 15-minute walk, so wear comfortable shoes if you're planning to leave the Civic building. I did not have comfortable shoes on and ended up getting blisters. :) Side note -- if you go to Mil Jugos, try the Arepas. It's like a corn-based "shell" or "bun" with meat inside. They serve it with delicious sauces in squeeze bottles. Pretty good!

If you don't want to go out for lunch, you can either bring your own or you can buy a hot meal from the cafeteria.

After lunch, they do take roll call, so don't try to sneak out early unless you have an ally covering for you. LOL

They ended up letting everyone go at 3pm. You then line up and get your certificate of attendance, in case you have a micromanaging boss and need to provide proof.

All in all, not so bad. Bring something to entertain yourself and pretend like you're about to jump on a plane that doesn't land for another 8 hours. And enjoy the day off work!