Roxbury District Court

–Doors open at 8:30
–Signs by the metal detector at the entrance say no cell phones but I and other jurors were allowed to bring them in.
–Jury pool room is on the second fl.
–There will be waiting, bring a book, snack and other entertainment.
–People who had come as jury before said to not expect to leave before 2pm at this location even if not picked. This was unfort true.

Today, I had my first jury duty experience here at the Roxbury Trial court. The notice they sent in the mail strictly states to be there by 8:30 am, however the court officer didn’t even address us until around 9. So don’t worry if you’re running late for jury duty here. The court officer in the jury pool waiting was extremely nice, but disappeared for an hour or so at a time throughout the day. The first 5 and a half hours of the day (yes I really did just say 5 and a half hours) consisted of sitting in the jury pool room doing nothing, not a single occurrence other than watching a 15 minute video about Jury Duty and why it’s our civic duty. The officer came in at noon to tell us that they finally had a case for us and to pack up because we’d be leaving shortly to go into the court room… after an hour of waiting to leave the depths of hell, also known as the jury pool waiting room, the officer came back in saying nevermind that the judge needs to take a lunch break and we’d have to wait until at least 2pm to get into a court room. At about 2:30 we were brought into the courtroom, and the judge dismissed us, without selecting any jurors for trial.
If you have jury duty here, do yourself a favor and:
1)Do not drive in, there’s virtually NO PARKING anywhere near this courthouse, and if you park in their parking lot they Will tow you, this lot is for court officials only.
2) Definitely bring some form of entertainment, whether it be a book/​magazine, tablet/​laptop, or headphones to listen to music. You’ll be doing a wholeee lot of waiting. There are 3 outlets in the jury pool room: two located in the back and one in the front by the water bubbler. I recommend bringing a charger for your phone as well, considering you’ll probably be on your phone the entirety of the day.

This past week I had my stint with jury duty. I tried to go in with an open mind but it was as bad as most people expect. The trek down to Dudley square was… something. Having never been to Dudley station before I spent a decent amount of time wandering around, semi lost. The bus took about twice as long as I expected just to get down there. On the bright side, I was about 15 minutes late and nobody seemed to notice or care. After watching the video on jury duty we sat… and sat… and sat and finally around 11 o’clock we were called into a court room. The case only required 7 jurors and seeing as how I was juror #28 out of 28, needless to say I did, not end up on the jury. Then came some more sitting until, around 1, they sent us on an hour long lunch break. After returning at 2 we proceeded to sit and wait until around 3:30 when they took us into another court room and told us that although they had tried to get another trial together, they couldn’t and we could all go home. The moral of the story: bring a good book, some snacks and the closest coffee shop is at Dudley Station. I give this place three stars because the judges were very friendly and tried to fill us in on what was going on whenever possible which I thought was nice. What wasn’t nice however, was the juror that kept flipping out about what a waste of time this all was and how she had responsibilities and blah blah blah. Do everyone a favor and don’t complain about jury duty. We all have to do it and your complaining doesn’t make anything easier for anyone and it certainly doesn’t matter to the court.

The assistant clerks have so much attitude and stand there and don’t help you. One woman had on sweat pants, a tee shirt, sneakers and was talking about how she kissed a police officer at the Christmas party because she was so drunk. They all sat around talking about who was going to take vacation time and when and how they are looking for new jobs. They don’t return phone calls and know nothing about civil procedure. The security might as well rape you with the looks they give us women. They do not mail out summons, require you to pay filing fees more than once because they messed up and most important THEY TAKE MONTHS TO PROCESS A RESTRAINING ORDER and show complete disregard for your safety!
p. s. I am a paralegal and deal with them on an almost daily basis for several cases so I know!

— 3 court reschedules due to errors on their part — one of which was because they «forgot» to notify the defendant of a trial
— at least 1 hour of waiting on the day of the trial
— 2 hours of actual trial and 10 pieces of evidence submitted by me to support my (should be an easy ruling in my favor) claim
… And being told they would notify me of a verdict in a month, I come to find out (by CALLING THEM, because I STILL hadn’t heard anything a month and a half later) they have NO RECORD of anything that happened during my trial!!! Yup, that’s right. NO RECORD that anything happened on the day of my scheduled trial… oh, except for the TEN pieces of evidence that I submitted. They DO have that.
Really? This is the United States judicial system?

My first experience with jury duty. I got my card in the mail and thought «Is this a joke?»
I have to say though, although the experience was dull and the room was a bit claustrophobic, I was able to finish an entire book and we were released around 1. I had the rest of the day off to do as I pleased and was very happy.
I never felt scared and the transport to and from on the bus was super easy. Overall, way better experience than I expected.

I don’t know why the govt. agents in charge of these things keep trying to send me to what I have been conditioned to dread as the T station of death, but I love the MA judicial system for nonetheless recognizing that panic attacks caused by the idea of venturing anywhere near the stabbiness are a perfectly legitimate excuse for me to stay home, or at least to be rescheduled to a courthouse nearer me.
So thank you Roxbury District Court for both keeping my life exciting with the near-​constant threat of a summons, and happily relieved by your ongoing willingness to negotiate the terms of my passive resistance.
Love you.
Love, me.

When you were in high school, did you ever get in-​school suspension? That is EXACTLY what jury duty is like here, only you don’t have to write an essay. I skipped school to go to a conference, is that the dorkiest reason you’ve ever heard? Punishment was in-​school suspension. A quiet classroom full of shady characters you would never interact with otherwise. You’re not supposed to fall asleep, but you might.
Oh, it’s not that bad. But it’s not that great either! When you’re called to do your civic duty, you have no choice. So when I was called (every 3 years, like clockwork) this time, they sent me to Roxbury. No parking means I had to take the 41 bus to Dudley, which really wasn’t awful. And there’s no parking downtown either, so what’s the difference? There are actually a lot of spots on the street that you can park in, just not right at the courthouse.
Jury duty here was really, really boring. More so than downtown. The room is small, there is no view and the chairs are uncomfortable. But at least they let you have snacks and play games on your iPod. Definitely bring a book and your iPod, because they never let people go free before noon.

Today I had to go to jury duty. The court house doesn’t have any parking for jurors. They will tow your car if you try to park there. I saw tow truck driving through the parking area three times. So take public transportation or have someone drop you off. The jury room is hidden to the right of the elevator as you get out. the room its self is small and narrow with two unisex bathrooms that are in bad need of repair.
I didn’t have to serve, but they kept us until 1:15pm without lunch. So bring a book and some snacks.

You have wasted 6 hours of my life: holds hand out: Can I have it back… no? SCREW YOU!
So they do not OPEN the doors until exactly 8:30. It’s amazing, people come up to the door, see ALL the people just standing around, and STILL check to see if the door is open… I don’t get it
So they made us watch this stupid jury video that’s probably 20 years old. My favorite part is how they were always commenting on «your willingness to serve…» If willingness means I don’t want to pay the $ 2000 fine if I don’t show up… than ya I guess I’m pretty willing.
Can I just say, I wasthis close to getting picked, at freakin 2:30 p.m. I would NOT have been a happy cookie if I had to come another day… sheesh. Why even pick a jury that late? (The court closes at 4:30)
So in closing… See you in three years bitches!