René C. Davidson Alameda County Courthouse

Like other reviewers of this courthouse, I write this review as someone called for jury duty. I want to share a few helpful (and recently-​validated!) tips to make the best of your first jury duty visit to this courthouse. The other Unilocal reviews here also offer excellent guidance.
Definitely bring these things:
* YOUR JURY SUMMONS. Probably should go without saying …
* 2 PENS. That second pen could make you somebody’s hero. They’ll ask you to fill out forms, and the courthouse doesn’t provide writing instruments.
* BOTTLED WATER. If you have to leave your holding room seat every time you get a little thirsty, you may lose your seat. The folks in charge will ask groups of jurors to gather in different parts of the holding room throughout the day for various reasons.
* FOOD. Same reason as above. Although there is a small café on-​site.
* FULLY-​CHARGED ELECTRONIC ENTERTAINMENT. Outlets are scarce in the juror holding room (I saw maybe three working wall outlets in a room that held over 100 people), so be prepared to go without the juice.
TL;DR: To me, this felt a lot like packing my carry-​on for a flight. What you’d want with you on a plane, consider bringing with you to the courthouse.
— — — — — — –
If you care about parking and getting into the building, here’s my experience.
I chose to drive and went to the Alco garage on Jackson Street. The courthouse still subsidizes parking at this garage, and you’ll pay $ 6.00 for a whole day. (Just validate your parking ticket in the juror holding room.) This garage has two entrances, but only the Jackson Street entrance admits the public. I arrived at 8:15am on a Tuesday and had no trouble finding a spot.
The courthouse is a very short and relatively safe walk from the garage. I didn’t run into anybody creepy on the street, and I saw plenty of suit-​wearing people roaming around.
Note the public courthouse entrance is on 12^th street. As you enter, prepare to remove all your jewelry (including watch) and your belt. You don’t remove your shoes. Take out any laptops for scanning. In the interest of keeping the line moving, the officers are firm and quick to correct folks who don’t get it.
Once you’re in the building, the people and the signage will get you where you need to be. As everyone’s jury duty experience will be different, the details of my story from this point probably isn’t relevant. My only piece is of advice is:
LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE ANNOUNCEMENTS. THEY MATTER.

Nice enough courthouse. Everyone seems friendly and helps you find your way around. Had to show up for jury duty.

I had to report as a juror here, a couple of months ago, for a case involving one of our medical institutions. It was well organized, efficient and respectful.

The building has some interesting aspects — nice exterior, high ceilings, lots of wood in courtrooms but it needs s bit of updating. No restroom on the main floor. The seats in the courtrooms are tight and hard. And it would great to have a real café there instead of a stripped down 7 – 11.
And the security. Belts off, boots off. Everything through a scanner. And they made me get rid of my very small (smaller than salad size) metal fork because «it could be used as a weapon.» Really, a fork?

A grand structure built in the Depression era that towers over Lake Merritt and still sees lots of use today, not only as the county courthouse, but also for the district attorney’s office and the county registrar of voters. Although the interior is showing its age, the whole facility is still perfectly usable, and there’s a grand feeling to it all, as if you’re really in an episode of «Law and Order» or some other crime series.
Indeed, as is to be expected of such an historic place, the courtrooms have seen their share of sensational trials over the years. I sat on the jury of a short-​lived trial, and the courtroom I attended had an airy two-​story feel to it, with judge’s chambers off to the side on the first level, plus separate holding rooms for the jury and for defendants on the second level. Everyone in the courtroom, whether the judge, courtroom staff, prosecutors, defense attorneys, or translators, conducted themselves professionally and respectfully. At no time did I feel unfairly swayed towards one side or another.
There aren’t many amenities in the courthouse besides a rudimentary café and a set of bathrooms on the basement level, so whenever there’s a break in a trial, there’s a mad dash for the facilities. Nevertheless, if you’re called to serve on a jury, the experience itself is quite interesting, and you really feel like you’re part of something important and that you’re doing your civic duty.

I give it 3 stars only because how «excited» can you get with a County Courthouse?!
But, as a citizen, being called in to possibly be on a Jury, I can assure you that the bathroom for the men, in the waiting area, was very clean. (I’m assuming the women’s was also good).
I also had the opportunity to go to the little Café which is inside of the Court Building (1^st floor, North Hallway) and aside from being about the size of an over sized broom closet — you are able to get snacks and beverages at a very fair price — I paid $ 2.25 for a bottle of water and a bagel, not bad at all. The lady who ran the little Café was friendly as well.
Do I want to come back? Well, honestly «No» ;-)

A courthouse that gets the job done most of the time. Expect moderate (30 minute) lines to file forms and petitions. I filed for a name change here, and the clerk did not know about a new law that exempted transgender people from the requirement to publish it, and I had to argue for a bit. If you want to file forms here, do 5 mins of research at home to get yourself ahead of the court clerks.
The judges here are knowledgable and up to date. The one that signed my form was very professional and respectful.

Jury duty: you get that summons and a) roll your eyes and try to figure out if it will work with your work/​personal schedule b) curse and throw it out with the recycling c) lose the damn thing and then worry there’s a bench warrant for your arrest (this happened to me once) d) sigh and put it in your phone. I have had most of these reactions (c prevents me from doing b) but I usually comply with my civic duty. Usually, I have to call in for a couple of mornings and then I’m done for the year. This year, I requested a postponement.
Like clockwork, I was summoned to the Courthouse and when I checked online, I saw that my jury group had been chosen to report in person. It was also the first day of my daughter’s summer school program so it was a hectic morning which included me running up from Lake Merritt BART. I joined the line into the jury assembly room, hastily completed the back of the form (take care of this in advance!), and joined the 179 sleepy people with me. We filed past the work slip forms (everyone must take one) and then grabbed a seat. There is free wi-​fi but I also brought a book. We were asked to turn off our devices a few times so come prepared. Vicki, the clerk in charge of the jury assembly, was informative and hilarious in that momma don’t take no mess kind of way; I actually thanked her for making the morning so entertaining. There were alphabetical roll calls as judges summoned juror pools; these are randomly selected so pay attention. We got a break around 10:15. One star off for the lackluster snack bar: the fridge was out of order and the offerings were all run of the mill pre-​packaged snacks. Next time I’m packing my own water and food as outside food is allowed in the assembly room. Then Vicki fooled us by saying we would be needed at 2pm before dismissing the 100 of us who hadn’t been selected to leave around 11am.

Jury Duty? Here’s what you need to know:
–bring a pen! A book, phone charger, or laptop are also recommended to help pass the time.
–the best way to get there is to take BART to the Lake Merritt station, and just walk a couple blocks to the courthouse.
–even though the address says Fallon St, the entrance is actually on 12^th Street.
–go straight down the hall and the jury room toward the end, on your left. Give them your filled-​out jury summons stub, and pick up your proof-​of-​jury-​duty note.
and then you are, as Dr. Seuss would say, «headed, I fear, toward a most useless place; the waiting place…»
They do give a pretty clear introduction, and you get to watch a throwback video (I’d bet good money it’s on a VHS tape) about how great and patriotic your jury service is, and then they’ll start calling names. When I was there, they called three groups of names, at least an hour apart. Group A was the «chosen ones» that got to go up to the courtroom [relatively] right away. Group B (my group) was the second-​stringers. We were given an hour of free-​time because the courtroom wasn’t ready yet. In the meantime, they called Group C, the «lucky ones» that were released from jury duty. In the meantime, Group A started filtering back into the jurors room. After Group B’s hour of free-​time, we waited *another* hour before we got called up to the courtroom, given their spiel, and sent back to the jurors room with a heavy-​duty questionnaire to fill out. I think we were pretty much in the same boat as Group A, just two hours behind them.
After that, I got to go home. It was around 1pm, so not too bad, but I didn’t get a lunch break, so I was kinda grumpy about that. Aaaaand I didn’t know if I was done jurying or not — I had to call back in a week to find out if I was selected, based on my completed questionnaire. A week later, I called, and was not needed. How’s that for anti-​climactic? Jury duty complete, gained EXP, level up!

I was invited for jury duty for an 8:30am time. I took Bart and the stop is called the Lake Merritt station, it’s about two and a half to three blocks from the station. If you have pepper spray then you will have to leave it outside or just not bring it along. The area is pretty safe you will have to wait for ever after checking in. I suggest you bring a book, something to read or something to keep you busy. They didn’t call the first group until about 10:30am. They called the second group at about 11am. I was in the second group, whom they said the second courtroom wasn’t ready yet, so we would have to wait until 1:15 for the courtroom. I walked around and looked at the lake that’s right near there. It took me about around an hour to run and walk around the Lake Merit. When I came back to the Assembly room which is where they have the jurors waiting. We were dismissed at 2:30 pm. So that counts as doing jury duty I guess for the year?!
Try not to be late. I was early a few minutes. There is some leeway, but they did turn people away after sometime, even though they had people wait quite a while.
If you come here you should bring food or snacks enough for several hours. You might want to bring a bottle of water. There are bathrooms for the Assembly room, and if they announce anything you won’t miss it, because they have a speakers in the bathrooms. You will need to listen for when your name is called. There are outlets in the Assembly room, but not many. I saw many people using their laptops. If you bring a laptop or might be using your phone for the time that you are waiting, then you should bring a charger. It’s probably cheaper to take Bart, even though they offer a voucher for one of the parking garages. I heard that the parking garage that is closest to there fills up fast.
If you end up having to wait until after they come back from lunch, like I did, then you might want to bring your car, walk to the lake, get food, or stay in the Assembly room.

Good luck getting anyone on the phone. 3 hour hold times and the operator for the civil department doesn’t speak english and has no knowledge of the law.

So this review is focused around filing any documents in the court house.
Because they combine a few different divisions into one place (small civil claims, parking, unlimited civil, ex) and they have fifteen windows but only three employees working at a given time, this is one of the worst places to go to get anything filed.
The staff is incredibly unhelpful (there are one or two noticeable exceptions) and dismissive. Have all your documents in order and filled out before you wait in line, which will take you at least an hour.
If you have to come to file anything, come in the morning. 1130-​130 is a nightmare as they all go to lunch.
Self help center closes before one, and filing closes at 230.
An unfortunate example of what happens with little to no money invested into key government facilities. Think of this court house as a giant DMV. Except you can’t make an appointment, Lawyers included.

Yuck… Jury duty. It’s almost an annual event now. Everyone in line to enter has a miserable look on their faces. The door opens and you have to go through the security clearance. The jury wait room is massive. There was about 240 potential jurors. They selected 60 for three cases. I won the lottery as I was the fourth group that wasn’t chosen for the J.D. Aahh, love it. There was a 75% odds chance that I would have to «serve» and I bucked it. Not today Alameda County. Just so you know; there are virtually no coffee or restaurant places near by. There is a food/​bev cart inside. If you want «variety» the nearest one is several blocks away, where you have to wade through the homeless, the crack-​zombies, the miscreants, the un-​leashed dogs, and an occasional civil-​servant worker of neighborhood citizen (you’ll notice that they are working with a very very fast pace). Also, the nearest circus garage is a couple of blocks away. Don’t fret, there is an underground level that connects you directly with the courthouse.

So the staff is pretty helpful, you can tell and hear where they get annoyed of dealing with the daily stupidity and the diversity of impatient people who come through. They do their best to lighten the mood because yes, it’s dreadful that we, out of a kajillion people in Alameda county, got chosen for jury duty.
The parking, with validation is a dollar less whatever Alcopark is offering. The pay? 15 dollars plus 44 cents a mile for travel and you don’t get paid until a day after. They have different groups to show up after you fill up all the forms (by your last name). If I had no other commitments, I’d do my jury duty service and get it over with. Too many people try to dodge and lie to get out of it, but it’s a domino affect to those who actually cannot spend the time here because of personal hardships.
Plan on BART if you come, parking gets pretty hectic and an extra 10 minute walk won’t kill you. Save the headache and take public transportation, which is what I’m doing next time.

This review is based on the understanding that jury duty is inconvenient and unpleasant for everyone. Keeping this in mind, I think my experience went about as well as it could have.
I arrived by 8:30 and did not experience the long lines other reviewers write about. I parked in the Alcopark garage ($ 6/​day with jury duty validation). I was worried because some people talk about it filling up, but it is huge and I’m pretty doubtful that you would not be able to get a spot there unless you show up after 9:00.
After jury orientation, I was moved to a group of potential jurors for the first case of the day (I later learned this is lucky) The judge came and talked to us. He told us the case would be 3 weeks long at best and that it was complicated. He read us the statute for claiming a hardship. We all filled out a 15 – 20 page questionnaire and then received hardship forms if we requested them. If we did not claim a hardship, we had to return at 9:30 on Wednesday for jury selection with the lawyers. The time at this point was 10:00, about 1.5 hours after arrival.
With my hardship form, I went to the judge’s court in another building. They called us in to hear our hardships in the order we arrived. I received a hardship because I had booked vacation travel in 3 weeks. The economic hardship jury duty would have imposed upon me (my employer not paying me each day in excess of 3 days) did not seem to concern them as much as my vacation!
All in all, I got out by 10:45. I appreciated that I got my hardship request heard/​approved the same morning I arrived. My only real concern (other than neighborhood, lack of lunch options, etc.) would be that there are no separate jury holding rooms, so they can only group people up by potential panel and have the judge address one group at a time. This means that if you are selected for consideration in the 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th trial for the day, you would be waiting there doing nothing for hours.

After five years in Alameda County, I guess it was inevitable that I finally had to report for jury duty. The courthouse is conveniently located a few blocks from the Lake Merritt BART station. There is a nearby parking garage on Jackson Street ($ 6/​day if validated) but they warn that it fills up fast. There is free wi-​fi in the building so it’s possible to do some work while you are waiting in the jury room. However, the courtrooms do not seem to be air conditioned so it got very warm. If you are going to be there on a hot day, I would recommend wearing short sleeves.
I was surprised at the lack of good restaurants in the vicinity. You would think that with all the people who work at the courthouse or are serving jury duty, there would plenty of places to choose from. There is a small kiosk in the courthouse but not much of a selection of food. I saw a microwave near Department 12 so you could bring some food to warm up.
All the staff are very friendly. I was glad I wasn’t picked to be on the jury (it would have been a month-​long murder trial) but I think the whole process is very interesting, albeit time consuming. Judge Thomas Reardon is very entertaining and explains the law well. I learned a lot in the three days I spent in his courtroom.

Okay I got the dreaded screen on the computer that said my juror class had to report at 8am for Jury Duty.
Well it actually was not that bad, the Jury Duty Clerks make it quite easy for you, but I am not going to tell you what they do for you cause you have to experience it for yourself when you’re called for your civic duty.
This building has so much history in the halls, it may be decorated from another time, but it’s a standing monument to our Justice System, and it’s craftsmanship.

re: John True:
Courtroom 23 John True was as professional as it gets. Husband was there for jury duty and could not say enough about how great and respectful this judge was.

Jury duty. It never fails. I get called EVERY YEAR and usually have to come here to Oakland. At this point, I think I’ve mastered taking BART here, so I’d almost rather come here.
The courthouse is about 3 blocks from the BART station. If you drive, you should plan to get there early since the parking garage fills up FAST. You can validate your parking inside the jury room. If you take BART, plan for an extra 10 – 15 minutes for the walk. You also have to go through security, so save time and take your metals off before you walk through the doors. It’s amazing how people cannot seem to follow simple metal detector procedures and that causes the line to be held up.
There are really no places to eat around here. Plan to bring a lunch and snacks, otherwise, you’ll be stuck eating off of the coffee kiosk inside the courthouse. They don’t offer much, except for bagels, fruit, and muffins. Oh and coffee and other beverages. Just come prepared. You never know how long you’ll be here!
The jury room is open for you to hang out and eat, use your laptops, read, etc. They have free wi-​fi, which is convenient. Basically it’s a holding room. If you haven’t been assigned to a case, then you come here and hang out and wait for your name to be called.
If you have been assigned a case, then you report to that courtroom. No reading, phones, eating, or drinking in the courtrooms. The bailiff will remind you of that!
It’s not as bad as it seems. Then again, I guess I’m just used to it!

The interior of this building could use some updating — it’s kind of worn out. I arrived here on motorcycle and realized I should have taken BART or a bus when was immediately approached by a very tall OPD officer at the metal detector checkpoint who had noticed my gear — boots, rain pants & ¾ length jacket, full face helmet.
«What do you ride, a scooter?»
«Why yes, officer! I do ride a stereotype!»
No, really — I just looked at him in disbelieve but that’s what I thought.
I smiled and said, «No, I don’t»
He kept guessing — «A Ninja 250? A Harley? What? Aren’t you going to tell me?»
I told him «Sorry, it’s not for sale!‘
Fortunately, he laughed.
Folks here are pretty nice but I think that the services are a bit overextended and it always amazes me at how much hand holding people need to function in life. The lines are dehumanizingly long and because most people are sheeple, you get treated like the lowest common denominator — so be prepared to have someone talk to you and answer your questions as though you are in kindergarten.

Today I filed a claim for small claims court. I had really no idea what to except, and I was braced for a bureaucratic headache. Nope!
I’ll start at the beginning: the court offices open at 8:30. When I drove up around 8:10, the AlcoPark garage was already full. I lucked out and got a space in the street, but when I return for court, I’ll definitely Über it.
As mentioned by awesome Unilocal Elite Eugene L., there’s ONE metal detector. So pretty slow going. Plan ahead.
The office I needed opened promptly (and I mean PROMPTLY) at 8:30, when raised my expectations. I heart punctuality!
So the office fire opens. Then, weirdly, everyone in line ahead of my scurried in every direction. Confused, I wandered in a random direction and found a staffer at a window. I was weirded about by her excessive chitchat with a coworker and her excessive desk décor, but in the end her competence won out. I was done in about ten minutes flat. It cost me 30.00 to file and another 15.00 to serve via certified mail.
Stay tuned… I go to court in May.