Gordon D. Schaber Sacramento County Courthouse — Local services in Sacramento

I've received 3 summons over the 12 years I've lived in Sacramento, and this 3rd one was the first one I was called in to show up for. I don't think anybody is excited to spend a day, if not multiple days out of their lives doing this so of course I was annoyed and reluctant. Despite the inconvenience, I can say at the very least the people involved minimized the pain.

The building is well kept and the staff made an effort to make things as accommodating as possible. Two groups were summoned to show up today. The waiting room had roughly ~100 seats and a little more than half of them were filled prior to them announcing which courtroom upstairs you needed to go to. If you're summoned on a day in which more than 4 groups are called in to appear, I'd suggest coming early to avoid dealing with parking. It wasn't bad for me with only 2 groups - plenty of parking space to spare

If you're new to this here are a bunch of quick things to know: -Bring something to keep yourself busy/entertained like a book, Nintendo Switch, laptop, ect as there's a good chance you're here all the way until 4:30PM which is the latest you'll stay -The courtrooms and hallways can get pretty chilly so if you're sensitive to that then it's a good idea to bring a jacket or dress accordingly -They gave us a lunch break from noon until 1:30PM. There's a cafe on the 6th floor that's just painfully mediocre at best. You're already downtown so there are a lot of great options within a few blocks, but if you just want the convenience the option is there for you. -Without going into details regarding the trial we were prospective jurors for, our group was the second set of jurors for them to consider. It took them the full day to decide the final list of jurors and alternate jurors. -In the courtroom our judge was incredibly accommodating and sympathetic to those who have been severely inconvenienced by the summons. He immediately allowed about 6 people to be excused for their service for these types of reasons: a husband just found out his wife got breast cancer and he's not in the right mindset // a woman was the sole source of income and just got laid off // the nature of the case had some people admit they may not be fully impartial as a juror -You're pretty much spending this whole day being questioned both as a group, and individually to determine each juror's ability to make a fair determination on any given case based on the evidence presented. We were given the opportunity to hear out the charges being put forth, and the defendant was present for the whole day as well as all the attorneys for both sides so the questions were tailored to be both broad and relevant to this specific case. -I personally wasn't selected to be part of the jury in the end so my service ended when I left, but if you're selected you're expected to be present everyday for the duration of the trial which could last a few days up to a full week, but this could vary depending...

Absolutely terrible experience. I got called for jury duty and I showed up early for check in and couldn't find ANY parking. I had to park on the road and I paid almost $20 for 5 hrs. When I went inside I waited behind almost 100 people to get checked in. I could find anywhere to sit because there were a couple hundred people scattered in the limited seats that are offered.

After about an hour of waiting, they started making announcements. Because I was all the way down the hall, I couldn't hear anything. They only have one speaker in the big room and then no one else can hear anything. A while later they finally started calling names for 5 groups. Took about 20 min, I wasn't called. I sat down for another hour waiting and then had to ask several people where the bathroom was because there were no signs. I went to purchase a snack at the vending machine and my snack got stuck.

I went up to the help desk and told them my snack was stuck and the lady told me I'd have to go up to the 6th floor, go to the cafeteria, and tell someone what I tried to purchase. Hell no. This is absolutely terrible service for people who have no choice but to come sit for hours to see if their name is called. I told her about parking on the road and she said I would not be reimbursed for road parking. She told me I would just need to move my car at lunch to the overflow parking.

Lunch is 2 HOURS LONG. And it isn't free. You have to pay for it with cash only on the 6th floor. After taking a two hour lunch that just drags on your stay, they have you stay for another 2-4 hr stay.

It's a full work day so make sure you have food and entertainment to last you a long time. I also explained to the front desk that I am a college student who lives with a roommate and cannot afford to be there because i work part time and I have bills to pay. They told me that since I live with someone who contributes to rent, I am not qualified to be excused.

They need a better way working with their jurors. Maybe instead of having them sit for hours at a time waiting to maybe hear their name called, they should have jurors stay within 20 min. Of the area and send out mass texts or calls when they are going to be called so THOSE jurors show up and know which department to go to. Instead of having hundreds of people waste their time, their days off, and their unpaid hours just sitting around for nothing.

I absolutely hated this experience and I hope I never get...

served on a jury last year. case + deliberation lasted about 3 weeks.

all things considered, the facility itself is fine. By government standards, I would say they're pretty efficient and there are no egregiously bad problems, which is more than you can hope for considering how disruptive serving on a jury can be. (Not sure how things look now with covid though!)

three protips:

do NOT eat anything at the cafeteria on the top floor. This includes anything their staff prepares (disgusting food) as well as pre-packaged food (often very close to expiration). Go to any other cafe during your recess if you aren't packing a lunch; there are plenty within walking distance.

Bring your own toilet paper or sanitary wipes. The restrooms use the lowest-grade toilet paper imaginable and you will quickly develop hemmorhoids with continued use.

The IT department is a bit underfunded and as a result, the multimedia equipment (laptops, monitors) available for use during deliberation is very old and completely incapable of decoding most modern video formats. In our circumstance, the laptop available had 1GB of RAM and an ancient single-core processor and failed to playback a single frame of video evidence originating from a modern smartphone. They were able to provide a laptop capable of this playback after asking. This did cause a bit of a delay during deliberation, but it wasn't significant enough to add days to the...