Clarence M Mitchell, Jr Courthouse

Here to perform my civic duty serving as a juror. Boring as usual, but the air conditioning was on point, as always. Although you aren’t allowed to talk on your cell phone in the assembly rooms, you could text, and otherwise utilize your phone, laptop, tablet, etc. You can also eat and drink. You were called in groups according to your jury summons number to come up, present your summons and photo ID, get it stamped as proof of your service and receive your $ 15 fee. You could choose to waive the fee, but why would you? The movies that were shown were Hitch and Star Trek. They have a quiet room for those who don’t want to partake in movie watching or getting chummy with your fellow jurors. If you were still in the room and your juror number had not been selected, you were alIowed an hour and 45 minutes for lunch. Upon returning and thinking that l might have dodged the bullet of serving, in the middle of Star Trek, the movie paused and there was an announcement that jurors with numbers 551 up and including 949 were to meet in the hallway. I was crushed as my number was included in this announcement and so were a majority of my fellow jurors who were left in the room. We shuffled our way into the hallway and followed the court rep outside in the sweltering heat, around the corner and across the street to the East court building to await our turn, but a magical thing happened. As we waited, the rep said that was a good sign, to which we all let out a collective sigh of relief and prayed that we were not needed. It was then that she jubilantly stated that our services were not required and to return to the juror assembly room. Hallelujah! It was 3:15 and if l could just hold out another hour, all would be good. It was then, after shortly returning to the room that the movie paused again and on the screen flashed an announcement that our service for the day had concluded, to which l jumped up, grabbed my belongings and gingerly walked out of the cold room and building into the sweltering hot and humid afternoon, to my relief… until next time…

I had to come here for jury duty last week, and it was… eh. Jury duty is a fact of life, but there’s got to be a better way for it to be handled. The check-​in process has improved, but it’s still extremely slow. My main gripes are:
1. Parking. I used the garage where you get a «discount» for jury service. My fee was knocked down from $ 9 to $ 8. How generous.
2. There’s only one metal detector, and the way security is set up is so inefficient. I was happy it wasn’t raining because the line was out the door on almost all occasions.
3. They show the worst movies, and unfortunately the quiet room was filled to the brim with people.
4. Wi-​fi is a joke. In addition to that, my phone’s battery drained so quickly from trying to find a regular signal all day. Reception sucks.
5. There is a complete lack of outlets in the regular rooms, and if you don’t get to the quiet room early enough, you’re not going to get dibs on one there either. Make sure your devices are fully charged the night before!
6. The bathrooms are gross.
Hopefully I don’t get called again for awhile, because I am not looking forward to repeating this process!

Went by today to Courthouse to get a license and postpone jury duty. It was a quick and easy visit.
Went on a Monday morning around 10 AM.
The first task was to get a license. The wait was no more than five minutes. There are only two other people in front of us. The lady who assisted us was pleasant and explained everything thoroughly. The process was quick.
Second task was to postpone a jury duty date. There was no line, and the wait was just one or two minutes. Again the process was quick, and they explained exactly what needed to be done.
Took care of everything just in about 25 minutes.
Besides the difficultly parking, overall very satisfied with the visit.

Not the most pleasant place you want to go. They do keep it pretty clean but, who wants to be going inside of a courthouse for anything. Normally that doesn’t mean anything good.

No one that I know particularly likes jury duty in ANY jurisdiction, but serving in Baltimore City is particularly painful. The courthouse is old, it’s hot as hell, and the chances that you’ll be selected for a trial are sparse. No outlets to plug in a laptop or a cell phone — and wifi here? Laughable. You’ll be treated to moronic movies, nothing to eat or drink until they release you for lunch (where you’ll then spend 10+ dollars on disgusting fast food options), and nowhere to park (unless, of course, you drop another 10 bucks in a garage somewhere — so much for the 5 bucks a day they give you, huh).
The last time that I served was a colossal waste of energy. Particularly since I’m a law enforcement employee — what are the chances, ladies and gentlemen, what are the chances? LESS than zero?
Want to get out of jury duty in Baltimore City? Tell the defense counsel that you’re against drugs in any way, that you think law enforcement is a good thing, that you believe in criminals being punished for their crimes — you’ll be dismissed faster than your brain can translate, «Thank you, you’re not needed.»
Other types of services are just as painful and mind-​numbing, whether it’s applying for a divorce or child support enforcement, etc. Really, you just don’t want to be here for any reason whatsoever.
And I mean any reason at all.

Beautiful interior halls and generally cool if not ageing architecture. You don’t want to be here unless your getting married. I did a tour of juror service this week.
the process is akin to giving birth to a piano. Long and uncomfortable.
But once on a trial it gets better, a little.
Increase your seating capacity and juror accommodations Baltimore.
See you at the court house.
maybe

Romance is in store for wide eyed engaged couples planning to tie the knot at the Balmer City Courthouse!
Who needs ushers when Sherrif’s deputies double as a uniformed escort for their charges from central booking and for the lovely bride?
Who needs a pipe organ when the steady ching ching ching of fine young gentlemen shuffling off to court down the historic hallways in chains from their wrists to their ankles fills the air?
An attractive perk of being a Baltimore City resident without a felony is the annual rite of Jury Duty. $ 15 and threats of arrest if you blow it off compensate you for a day of lost productivity and tedious boredom. They then immeditately part you with $ 6 for super slow wifi.
Our eight city employees who streamline the productiivity of the jury process specialize in lines. There is a huge line weaving outside into the rain for the one metal detector. Next is a collosal line to sign in. Next, a forced to queue for a second sign in and fifteen bucks. When you leave for lunch or to walk over the the other courthouse, back to metal detector line.
Being selected to serve on a jury is good fun. The debate in the jury room makes it crystal clear that the majority opinion will rarely side with the poolice. The fact that your name and occupation as a juror is made available to the defense is flat out scary.
At the same time, Charm City residents deserve to experience a piece of Americana our county friends just can’t get while they sit in traffic 45 minutes each way to work.
1,000 citizens were called to serve today, and only 100 were called in the late morning for 1 trial jury selection. Over the juror snoring and drooling while draped across three chairs, the PA interrupted the Jlo movie at 3:30. «Pay close attention, we will need a large juror pool for the next case. Just kidding, you are dismissed.»
Clever stuff, but the joke is on her if she thinks her underfunded city pension will be around for long.

My Husband and I chose to ditch the Big Wedding planning and had an incredibly private justice of the peace wedding.
The entire process couldn’t have gone more smoothly.
The lady who married us looked like she hated life and was disgusted by anything involving marriage LOL but we had a great time.

I feel a little odd writing a review of a courthouse, but if you’ve ever been called for jury duty (and if you live in the city you will be, it’s turned into an annual event for me) you know how unpleasant it can be sitting around here all day long. The last time I was called for jury service they called so many people that they didn’t have enough seats for everyone (you’d think they would’ve had that figured that part out by now) and then the overwhelming majority of us were never needed. I understand that it’s impossible to know exactly how many people you’ll need, but having compared my experience with people who’ve done jury duty in other jurisdictions it’s clear that jury the Baltimore City Circuit Court system is very inefficient and poorly run.