Palo Alto Courthouse

I got called to jury duty at the Palo Alto Superior Court.
I dress up in my regular work attire: polo shirt, khakis, and quality tennis shoes. No torn jeans, no shorts, no tank tops, no open toed sandals –nothing to get cited for contempt of court!
It takes 40 minutes for me to drive to the Palo Alto Courthouse, even though it’s only 12 miles, due to gridlock on 101 north, and highway construction in Mountain View and Palo Alto. Don’t want a speeding ticket going to court!
I’m at the courthouse at 810am with my parking permit for visitor or C parking. The visitor parking is filled, and the «C» parking is limited now to compact spots, most of which are SUVs and vans. Apparently compact in name only!
I place my parking permit on the dashboard –don’t want to get a parking ticket at the courthouse!
Metal detectors just like at the airports at TSA, but no pat downs, and no taking off shoes –I remembered to wear my socks without the holes! Security people are friendly and smile.
Up I go to the 4^th floor where the potential jurors are waiting. The first waiting room is already packed with 30+ people. They have the enthusiastic look of people who would rather be somewhere else, reading books and the internet on their tablets, while I’m writing this Unilocal review!
Lots of people in jeans and some ladies in flip flops. The 4^th floor has no A/​C so it gets hot by the middle of the day, but nobody in shorts. Do not want to disrespect the Judge!
At 830am everyone forms a line at the front desk where the clerk electronically scans my juror code from the notice to report for jury duty. No danger of an imposter coming in for jury duty!
910am, we go downstairs to the court chambers on the first floor, escorted by the court clerk.
The young, attractive uniformed court baliff instructs everyone to rise, as the judge arrives at 920am. The judge is in robes of the profession, very distinguished looking, and there is a public prosecuting attorney, a defense attorney, and the defendant.
Everyone is dressed up to the max, so you wouldn’t know the defendant, until they introduce themselves. Everyone except the Judge seems to be in their late 20s or early 30s –OK maybe the lady defense attorney is in her 40s! The prosecuting attorney looks like he’s still learning the ropes, straight out of law school!
The judge sounds like a politician on election day, thanking everyone for coming, and describing our sacred duty to our country, with the usual lecture on no electronic devices, no cell phones, no cameras, no laptops, no smart phones, no internet access, and no talking with lawyers, etc.
Jurors are not to engage in electronic social media about the case, as this could cause a mistrial. No eating in the courtroom –I see a few people swallowing their gum when they hear this!
By 940am 7 people are chosen from the jury pool to sit in the jury dock next to the judge. The people are chosen at random, by the court chambers clerk, but none of the 7 people in my jury number cluster are chosen. As Clint Eastwood says, ‘Are you feeling lucky?’ just before he spins the revolver, and shoots the perpetrator in the Dirty Harry series.
The 7 people are given a list of general questions to answer including marital status, residence, years in the county, children, occupation, ever served on a jury before, relatives in law enforcement, and whether you were a crime victim.
The potential jurors read aloud their responses, and then are questioned by the judge on sticking points.
The prosecuting and defense attorney get in their licks also, and ask individuals questions. Afterward the judge and the two attorneys huddle, and reach agreement on which potential jurors to excuse.
A college student with waist long hair and makeup –not sure if he got up on the wrong side of the bed, but he gets excused pronto!
Lunch is from 12pm-​130pm, and I ask the Filipino looking guard for the nearest Asian restaurant nearby.
By the end of the day, 12 people are picked for the jury, and 2 jury alternates. Half the people including myself are excused without ever speaking.
If you are on trial, and you see me in the jury pool, you better ask your attorney to excuse me. Otherwise I’ll send you to the local pokey!

I wish I had a good news from here today; but I guess I have to wait until Friday. The thing I’m disappointed is that the clerk of where we make the payment. They are so unorganized they take for ever to get one document

Learning process specially if you have never been to superior court proceeding hearing the judge can be very interesting and educating Just also jury parking always full but you can park opposite the court off Grant road in C Permit parking with a jury parking tag you can the map as you go thru security great experience

Here again to try get warrant recalled. Assigned to Dept 87 with an add on, yet the courtroom is closed, and everything moved to Dept 84. Judge was a great person, recalled the warrant, and gave the client a new court date without fines or jail time.

I spent a day at the Palo Alto Courthouse for jury duty. It’s a dated old building. About the only thing that’s changed since the 1970s is that only one of the half dozen entries to the building is unlocked for members of the public, and immediately inside it is a security check staffed by half a dozen deputies. They were pretty strict when I visited. The woman in front of me had a fork confiscated from her purse. That’s right, you can’t bring a fork in here. If you bag your lunch, make sure you can eat it with spoon.
The jury assembly room on the 4^th floor is like the waiting room at an emergency care clinic: a sad looking area with worn out furniture, too few chairs, and leftover magazines from 12 months ago. The only difference is no sick kids coughing all over you. But at least they have free wifi– so bring your gadget! But bring a full battery because there are limited outlets for recharging.
In the courtroom the feeling of being frozen in time since the 1970s continued. The seats are old and musty but at least they’re comfortable. Don’t look in the corners if you have allergies– the sight of the dust bunnies growing there, apparently also unchanged since the 1970s, might make you break out in a rash.
The one thing I did like about my day at the courthouse, aside from wifi in the juror assembly room, was the helpful way Judge Garibaldi explained the process for us prospective jurors. It was a relatively simple case but the selection process lasted all day. Mr. Garibaldi told us what was happening at every step of the way and why it was important. It was educational and heightened my opinion of him as a jurist.

We came to pay a fix-​it ticket, and lo and behold, there was side parking near the entrance! Little did we know, the side parking for the nice looking front entrance wasn’t the real entrance. That is for employees only.
So we trudge all the way around this ol’ godforsaken building. The security personnel were nice and friendly. While walking up the stairs, I noticed there were quite a few signs saying «You could trip and fall on stairs in heels. Hold the handrails!» Pssh, are you really going to come into the Courthouse in heels ready to fall (under any sort of influence)? I thought it was funny because I was wearing wedges, and now felt self-​conscious that people were looking, even though I was perfectly on balance.
The thing that really shocked and annoyed me was that they had a sign in the traffic ticket room on the third floor that stated «NO VISA DEBIT OR CREDIT» (MC, AE, etc. or checks only).
… Really? You couldn’t accept Visa? To avoid having to look for a bank nearby and go all the way down and around, we just used an ancient ATM in the corner, which had a $ 3 convenience fee, which was really not that convenient.
If you need to pay for anything, just make sure you bring checks… or just avoid getting ticketed.

Nicest people ever. Helpful clerks, almost no waiting. And parking not bad.

One of the nicest clerks/​officers/​staff are friendly and don’t make you feel bad. Never a wait when I come. Don’t know if that’s luck or what. Would highly recommend if u get a ticket, get it here JK

Well, if you find yourself in Mr. James Madden Traffic Court, there is probably nothing you can do about it, but I thought I’d write this anyway.
I got a ticket in Palo Alto. The officer said I was going 50mph on Embarcadero, but wrote 51mph on the ticket. He said he paced me, but then he also said that he was parked on the same block he claimed the violation was (on that section of Embarcadero, police cars cannot use a radar because of the «speed trap» rule). How can you pace someone on the same block where you were parked ?.
Sooo, I contested the ticket, and appeared in front of Mr James Madden. Unfortunate me: I was hurried, bullied, and intimidated. This judge did not even listen to my story, and he started to yell at me before I was even finished explaining my case.
Of all the civilians in the room on that date, only the ones for whom the cop did not show up came out good. Not a single person contesting their ticket got their ticket removed. Mr Madden made sure this did not happen. What kind of justice is this when the only way to win your case is pure luck i.e. when the cop does not show up? Ask Mr Madden.

I was called a a witness for the prosecution. I witness a domestic dispute and was called to court several times at the prosecution prepare their case. The Palo Alto Courthouse is old and outdated and surely can us an upgrade Old, ugly and dingy is all I’ve got to say!

i can’t really believe I’m doing a review on a court house, but I figured since my sister gave one. I might as well give my two cents.
Parking: It can be a pain in the butt during lunch times. I guess people like to take up court room parking spaces.
Entering: Going through the security check point, make sure you do not have anything metal or glass. I remember bringing some bottled drinks and having them convescated.
The only place I visit is the down stairs law library. Amazingly enough, for such a tiny library, it does carry a lot of books. Useful books? Or books for leisure reading? Hells no! If you are there to read old cases and look at text all day, this place is for you.
The elevator is quite creepy. I suggest using the stairs.

This building has been around since the 60’s (I believe) and there have been some modifications since then to keep up with the changing times. The building is divided into two sections — half are allocated to various offices (clerk, law library, attorneys) and the other half are for courtrooms and judges’ chambers. The different sections are about half a floor off so they have separate elevators, and you have to take the stairs to get to the courtroom side from the main entrance. The stairs are now equipped for those in wheelchairs.
Back in the day, like in 2000, all the doors were open so you could walk in and out easily. But they had to beef up security due to the increase in crimes against judges and the like, so now there’s only one public entrance… and you have to go through a metal detector. However, for county employees, we can still access the other doors (unless there is a cardkey malfunction).
The bathrooms are well-​maintained. There’s a snack and soda vending machine, but they really should have one of those machines that carry sandwiches and fruit. There’s seating outside each of the courtroom, or at least on the first floor, and I see people reading newspapers more often than not.
There are several county parking lots surrounding the building, but people can also park in the city lots across the street (be careful, though, because they really get you after two hours). People are really nice here. The deputies who secure the building are friendly. The judges I’ve met have been pretty cool. Even the translators are nice. The people from the clerk’s office are super sweet and are great at directing people with questions downstairs to the law librarian… who, in my humble opinion, absolutely rocks. I’ll sure miss this place when I leave in a few months (*fingers crossed*).