Milwaukee County Courthouse

Came in for jury duty. Sat most of the day on the jury pool, which is a room filed with hideously uncomfortable chairs & the heat set on «volcano». Finally got picked. Go up to the courtroom, oh well it’s almost lunch time, let’s break for lunch. Come back after lunch (1 hour, 50 minutes), wait around forever in the most uncomfortable chairs on earth back in the jury pool area. Finally get called back in to the courtroom. Opening statements, start questioning of first witness, whoops, it’s pretty close to the end of the day, let’s come back tomorrow. Come back in on Tuesday, wait around forever because one juror showed up 40 minutes late. Get called back into courtroom, watch a video. Let’s take a break! 45 minutes later go back to the courtroom just to be dismissed for lunch 30 minutes later. Come back from 2 ½ hour lunch break, cross examination, watch the same video. The ADAs are a couple of eye-​rolling, smirky little a-​holes. They sigh & shift & laugh behind their hands. What a couple of unprofessional tools. Dismissed for the day again. Come back the 3^rd day, closing arguments, more eye-​rolling form the ADA. Instructions are read & I’m selected as the alternate juror. WTF!!! 3 days wasted on this & I don’t even get to deliberate. What a crock. If you’re going to waste my time on this, ATTEMPT to move it along! Plus the rampant mold in that place triggered several asthma attacks for me. And the jury room was filthy. Overall horrible experience.

If you have to come here, there’s a good chance you’re not happy about it. Me, I live a lot of my life like a curious tourist and from this sort of perspective a visit to the Milwaukee County Courthouse is very interesting. It’s a lovely old historic building to begin with, so before you visit you might want to learn a little about it from a book like John Gurda’s history of Milwaukee or the Milwaukee Historical Society. The building is in a somewhat sad state of repair due to tight budgets from two different County Government regimes, and it’s clearly understaffed. However the workers from Sheriff’s Deputies up through Judges are generally polite and helpful. I think all citizens should see how their tax money is spent, they’re pretty helpful here if you want to arrange visits and class tours, and in a day and age when the average American thinks we need less government I think it’s edifying to see how vital some parts of government actually are. Not to mention it’s very entertaining. Seriously, a couple hours in one of these courtrooms (if you’re not a defendant) is better than any reality television show, without commercials.
Although they use antiquated record keeping and communication, it’s not impossible to figure out how to file your own small claims, and like I said most of the workers are surprisingly helpful. Much more so than, say, your typical Menards or Home Depot, so again I think it’s education for voters who think the private sector always does «it» better to try out some actual government services. Downstairs there’s a pretty good coffee shop with 2005 prices, and an old fashioned shoe shine man who makes me recall «Police Squad.» I ask for him inside tips but he never gets that. Both of them close around 2.
I’m sure if I wrote this right after jury duty I wouldn’t be able to muster more than one star, but to be fair, reviews have to be relative to the genre. I’ve done my civic duty in four urban jurisdictions, and I think it’s better in Milwaukee County (the food choices would actually be better in Cook County but they don’t usually let jurors go wandering off to eat at Ronnie’s Steakhouse in the middle of duty even if the juror asks over and over and over again). It does seem to be much less dangerous here than jury duty in Sri Lanka.
If you do have to come here (not as a tourist) remember there’s always a back-​up at the entrances for the security check (very inconvenient in the first person, but you do want everyone else to be thoroughly searched, right?), and there’s no way to avoid paying for parking if you’re driving (and again, everyone comes in at the same time so expect delays), but the courthouse is very well served by county buses. Whatever you’re here for, remember to bring your sense of humor and take the time to people-​watch and eavesdrop. It’s laugh-​out-​loud funny to see what people think is appropriate clothing to wear to court and how loudly some will protest their innocence while simultaneously confessing guilt, in the elevators, hallways, and even right outside of courtrooms.

If you live in Milwaukee County, this is where you get your marriage license application. They also do civil ceremonies here, but we are not doing that. There are metal detectors when you walk in. The security people were very friendly and nice. Since this is a government building, there are certain things you can’t bring in (e. g. weapons, etc).
They have lockers before the metal detectors so you can store your stuff that may not pass the metal detector, costs 75 cents to rent. My fiancé needed to store something, but we had used all our change for the meter. We talked with one of the guards about what to do, and he hooked us up with one of the lockers that had previously been stuck. It was very nice of him to do that.
The actual marriage license application was fine. Government employees aren’t always the most excited. Make sure you have your birth certificates and other ID stuff. Also, bring cash to pay because there is a small service fee for using credit card. The exterior front of the building is quite lovely.

Wow! So, I guess the 10^th Street entrance is the magic portal! Either that or the third time really is the charm!
The security guards on this side were friendly and smiling. The shoe shine guy was in good spirits! The people in the register of deeds office were happy! Wait. Maybe that’s because it was the afternoon and not the morning rush? Who knows, but I think I’m coming through these doors the next time I need to come down here. Luckily, it will be to the ROD office again, because I have 3.5 years to go before they can call me for jury duty!

Oof.
Twenty minute security lines? Check.
Super shitty wayfinding? Check.
Pretty rad architecture? Check
Two stars for justice.

Jury duty my ass.
I’m sorry… civic responsibility in this context is for the birds, you guys. I understand that we all need to be active citizens that embrace the idea of the greater good, but I call bullshit. The system is all sorts of jacked up. I wish I weren’t so disillusioned about it, because in theory it’s great. But in practice, not so much…
(diatribe complete/​review commence)
Three stars for the Courthouse. I mean, it’s safe right? They have metal detectors. You have to wait in line to go through ‘em, although if you’re smart/​clever/​have the inside scoop, you’ll find that some lines are shorter than others, depending upon the entrance you’ve chosen. (SO CHOOSE WISELY)
Aesthetically it’s all old and government regal and all that, so that’s pretty cool, I suppose. Symbolic for something? Maybe they just built things better back in the day. I think grandpa would agree.
Jury duty: regardless of my personal feelings on jury duty (let me again make them clear once more for you… I HATE JURY DUTY) it’s cool that they let you out of your designated area to enjoy the public museum for, like, 45 minutes or something like that, and for free…
DINOSAURS!!! (claps hands)
You do, however, end up spending most of your sixteen dollar a day jury duty compensation on overpriced, mediocre museum food if you spend your lunch break there. I suppose you could go to any one of the courthouse’s neighboring establishments that serve food; I think there’s a Quiznos maybe… ?
Side note: Quiznos still exists? What the what?

Our courthouse is a pretty cool building. It’s huge, but reporting for jury duty was easy. Shane is right, make sure you set aside enough time to go through the metal detectors. The cafeteria is okay. If you had to eat lunch here, I’d cross the street using the side entrance to get to the public museum. Their cafeteria has better food and it’s not as busy during the week. You get free admittance if you’re a juror!
In the few times I’ve come here, I’ve encountered people who were indifferent to my presence (marriage license), disgruntled (small claims court because of our sleazebag landlords), and jury duty (appreciative and thankful). It’s a total mixed bag but actually quite representative of society.

You’re such a good little courthouse! Aren’t you! Aren’t you! Yes you are!
I’ve always been a huge fan of law and order and civic duty and whatnot, yet visiting most governmental buildings always seems to leave such a grimy feeling on my soul.
The building itself is pseudo-​impressive from the outside. It’s on an averagely gardened plot of land, with geese that are a little too expectant of human interaction, i.e., they think you have bread (or money?) and will wait around until they get some. The colonnade on the outside gives the impression of a vast expanse on the inside.
The inside is anything but vastly expanded. It’s a jumble of hallways and frosted glass doors leading to areas where I can only assume spotlight interrogations and nail-​biter plea bargains are underway.
If you have need to visit the courthouse, be mindful of the fact that anyone entering must go through a metal detector and metal wand swipe. It can make for long lines, so plan accordingly if you need to be there at a certain time. Like reporting for jury duty.
I just reported for jury duty. Nothing I love more than sitting on a hard plastic chair for hours on end in a horrific school cafeteria-​like setting. But hey, they pay you $ 16 per day which is so worth it, especially if you make $ 16 per HOUR at your real job!