Superior Court of California – Van Nuys Courthouse East

Talk about horrible service went to record a document this morning 10 people in line took 1 and ½ hours. That is ridiculous. Big city like Los Angeles should do more for us tax payers

This is perhaps the worst courthouse I have had the unfortunate displeasure of having visited. I have been to court a few times in my day and Judge Richard Walmark in room 300 is both terrific and a travesty. The man knows the law, but he also goes «by the book.» I had never had a problem with my «proofs of service» anywhere within the State of California until my case was assigned to his judicial analysis and it was dismissed twice simply because of «defective» proofs of service. No reset, just $ 40 down the drain twice (totaling $ 80) because of his outright dismissals. The Small Claims court at Stanley Mosk does not condone this practice. They allow claimants the option to reset in order to «perfect» proofs of service if the court sees them as «defective.» I will never file at the Van Nuys Courthouse again if I can help it until Judge Walmark is relieved of his duties.

Got our marriage license here. Was actually pretty easy. Not a super long line. Your usual semi-​surly government staff.
Took about 30 minutes to get it one and done. Not bad!
Parking is a pain though. Like expletive level pain.

Jury duty
Captains log star date 12 032 015 at the 11^th hour.
We’re trapped. Myself along with other explorers found ourselves on some sort of holding facility. Not sure where or who is running the show. I’ve noticed there is a commander standing guard who would select a few from our group. Not sure where they are taken and they have not returned. Have they been released or killed? There just selected two more groups and now we have shrunk down to a small handful.
Nobody is asking questions or seems to be bothered. They seem to be drawn to these mind sucking hand held devices.
I’ll need to come up with an escape plan.
But in all seriousness the jury duty at this location was just like any others I’ve been to. The staff were helpful and can answer any questions you have. There is also a program they mentioned where volunteers would help kids from difficult backgrounds that sounded like a great idea.

Competent Jury in my court case.
I had my first jury duty here. I would do it again here. Hopefully, future experiences are the same!
Plenty of parking & numerous amounts of pedestrians

This Review is for FIX IT TICKETS —
This is only advice for those of you who need a fix it ticket. I had tinted front windows and had to have it removed. I read reviews on here about the fix it ticket and decided instead to go to Burbank Courthouse. I repeat GO to Burbank Courthouse. parking inspection directly out front door, lots of spaces. I showed up at 815am the Sheriffs office inside opens at 830am. There was only 1 other person in line. The sheriff came out looked at my car (2 minutes) I paid 20 $ Fee to Sheriff, then had to go down hall to clerk office. There were no lines and no one there. Total time to resolve this fix it ticket = 25 minutes. Everyone pleasant, easy, no waiting, much nicer area than Van Nuys. Many more smiling faces…

Compared to some of the other, more run down facilities, in Los Angeles County, this courthouse is well built and well run. The fact that the two courthouses here and all other buildings face a «civic center» area makes things hard to find from the street level. The parking meter enforcement here is very aggressive, and the underground parking garage is both expensive and is cash only.
The courtrooms could use renovation, true, but not as much as the restrooms here. The courtrooms are, for the most part, large and spacious, as are the granite hallways, which have floor to ceiling windows on each floor.
The elevators do not all seem to be working — ever. Typically there is a long wait to get to floors, so if you only need to go up 1 or 2 floors, use the escalators.

Warning: Stricter security rules than TSA!
Apparently you are not allowed to bring in: sharpie markers, glass of any kind, large keychains, locks, a positive attitude, etc…
Honestly, you should try to avoid courthouses either way. If you have to go, this is one of the more busy ones and is the only one that deals with small clams in LA County.
Leave everything at home and you may not get hassled by security.

I have a love hate relationship with this court house. As far as luck goes I am usually lucky when fighting traffic tickets here. But as far as the staff here and the wait and lines its absolutely horrible. If you come in the morning then line to get in is out the door and eventually they open up the lawyer and jury line for the general public. The second floor main windows are usually free in the after noon but very packed in the mornings. The judge on the the floor Dept 102 is very straight forward and does like any kind of extra words coming from you. Whats even worse about Dept 102 judge is the cashiers that take literally FOREVER. My usual time in is 8:20 Out by 11:15
One reason why this place is getting three stars is because many of the cases have been dismissed here (not anything to do with the court but rather the cop not showing up).
Also traffic school is always offered. You have go to trial on OR all the time. Community service is offered as well (even though I don’t usually take this option).

Came here to pick up our marriage license and the line was super long. It’s a bad idea to come here to pick up any license. There were only three people processing birth, death, and marriage license. It takes about 15 — 20 minutes for each person to be processed

On July 6^th 2016 this place got flooded and guess what, they had to postponed all court cases, the only people allowed in where the ones going to the second floor just to paid a ticket but if you were a juror or witness to cases you were screwed because now you have to come back on a day where you might have plans to take a state licensing exam that you cant get a refund to if you miss. This goes to show how much renovation this court needs. This place is a dump, so sad for the people who trust their future to this place.

This is probably one of the worst courts in LA County when it comes to dealing with the Court Clerk for payment of traffic tickets.
It’s a multi-​floor building with poor signs/​directions so if it’s your first time here come prepared to walk around, and I couldn’t even find a list of people due at court that day (it’s a piece of paper that’s supposed to say your name, time of your appearance and the department aka the floor and courtroom).
After pleading if you have to pay your fine you will be waiting outside for them to call your name, you would think they would have chairs for people to sit and wait like at the DMV but no. You sit around outside with about 30 other people just awkwardly standing in the corridor waiting upon Jesus to shine thru the ceiling and call their name to pay their fine.
Oh and it you got a speeding ticket DO YOUR RESEARCH (google «highway robbery speeding») and ALWAYS FIGHT YOUR TICKET VIA TRIAL BY DECLARATION since cops don’t get paid to write down a statement back but they do get paid overtime when they have to show up to court.

Judge Walmark room 300 small claims court. Horrible judge! He goes on these long rants and harps on forcing people to settle and talk to mediators. Hey judge, we are in your courtroom because we couldn’t come to an agreement! Duh — people don’t want to go to court, I mean like our case, this place ruined my man’s oil pan and then had the nerve to put glue on it and weld it instead of purchasing a new one and fixing what they messed up. The so called mechanic striped the nut because he couldn’t get it off and put a hole in the pan. Instead of replacing it, they did the above. And to add insult to injury, they kept the car two days and wouldn’t allow him to look at the work they did, asked him to trust them and so he drove two blocks home. As he was leaving for work, he hears a noise so he takes it back to Firestar Complete Auto & Tire because he’s been getting all of his oil changes there for the last three years and this guy literally says, «get out of here, I don’t want to work on your car anymore!» And walked away. So my guy followed him like really??? I’ve been a loyal customer. I tip after every oil change, they had personal conversations, I mean wow. Then he threatens to call the police because my man is like, you need to fix my car. I didn’t bring it to you like this. You messed it and he admitted he did. He even told him to take it to another mechanic and he would pay for it, this is during his many phone calls to my man when he had the car. So my man was like, I’m going to take it to the dealer. So, my man was like, fix my car, replace the oil pan. No they decide, he finds out after taking it to the Jeep dealer, they messed up multiple things by welding the pan, which they didn’t have permission to do and welding the nut which is causing the car to make a noise and affected other areas of the car like the differential which is very costly and the quote from the dealer specifically said the damage came from welding. However, this guy chooses to lie and counter sue accusing my man of trying to get his car fixed for free. The nerve! It straight insult. I digress, my fiancé ended up calling the police while he was there to try and talk to this guy about fixing his car. When the police arrive, they talk to my fiancé and ask him if he wants them to go talk to him. He’s like sure because he was curious to see what he would say. He tells the police my man tried to hit him twice, and that he told him to take it to the dealer so that they could tell him that it wasn’t the oil pan. The police walked back and tell my man, in front of me and my son, that he does not want to work on his car, he suggested he take it to the dealer so that they would tell my fiancé that it’s not the oil pan. So, the police tell him this is now a civil case and they suggested that he take it to the Jeep Dealership for an inspection and and walk across the street to the courthouse and file a small claims case. Do not contact him or come on his property and have your lady or son serve him, anyone over the age of 18. So, that’s we did but I told my man the defendant would call him and he did. He called him to say that he was going to sue counter sue embarrass him on his job by having him served there. I could
Not believe this guy. My boyfriend laughed in disbelief and told him to do it. So, we end up in this courtroom. This judge goes on and on about for about 45 minutes about how we the people do not having the right to a trial, you get 4 minutes both sides, to be tested, on your honesty, and if you lie your credibility is shot and I forgot the last one because he was so long winded, I drifted off. I was on the beach in Malibu, bike riding with my son. Focus Candace, focus! So, I come back and he was still rambling about you think you are gonna win but you are not, you may have all that paperwork but you aren’t going to win. In between cases and during cases he’s recalling old memories. I mean really? People took off work from a hard day’s pay to resolve something they didn’t and shouldn’t be here in the first place about. I mean, I know I’m long winded and don’t seem to be taking a breathe but you must understand how insulting and upsetting this whole thing would be. And in his countersuit, for the same amount as the dealerships quote, he produced a receipt for welding and that made us happy because to us it was proof. However, this judge didn’t look at any of our evidence and we had phone records, pictures, videos, witnesses, receipts, a letter from him and so many other things and he asked my man a few questions and let this bozo talk forever and continue to lie and there was nothing we could say because you can’t interrupt. Anyway, WE WON, received the judgement in the mail a few days later, not for all we sued for but he had to come out the pocket $ 1256 and he lost a good customer. But this judge was the worst. He spent so much time trying to deter us from coming before him, it was an insult to everyone in the room.

My husband and I filed a small claims case and on Monday 6÷15÷15 we had the pleasure of being in Judge Santana’s courtroom. We requested mediation however, both sides have to agree to it. The «arrogant» defendants refused mediation stating that there was nothing to meditate. Too bad for them, we were ready to settle and would have taken half of the amount we were seeking (I guess he thought he had a chance of winning).
We were grateful to see that we were second on the docket that morning. Judge Santana let us tell him exactly what happened without interrupting us. He then told us that he would have to review the case further. We believe they don’t tell you the verdict immediately as to not have angry people duking it out in the parking lot. We were in and out in less than 2 hours.
The VERY next day we received a Notice of Entry of Judgment in the mail and WE WON!!.
FYI-​Go prepared and if the other party is not telling the truth for goodness sakes, speak up! You’ve paid to have your day in court.

The night before a speeding ticket was due to be paid, I went online to the LA courts website to finally get around to paying the stupid thing. Unfortunately, the website said I couldn’t do that. Nervously I tried the phones to pay the ticket. Nope; no luck there either. I was gonna be pretty hosed if I had to send a check out, because it was, in fact, due tomorrow. Before leaving for work in the morning, I tried again. Still zero luck. If I sent a check, it would arrive in a week. That’d be late and I’d probably be cuffed in jail or be forced to pay an extra thousand dollars to the state government. Looks like I had to head on over there and resolve this. Dangit. Luckily, work was fairly slow at the moment, so I took a half day off to get over there and handle it. Thus began my adventure.
Based upon reading the reviews here, I was fully expecting to find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than Mos Eisley Spaceport. Thankfully, I was well prepared and I had gotten cash to cover the fine before leaving Simi Valley.
I parked in the structure beneath the city building mall. FYI: Parking is one dollar per half hour, with an eight dollar maximum. Not too bad. FYI: It’s Cash only here folks. Even though this is currently the year two thousand fifteen. Well, at least they’re not still working with gold doubloons. That’s a plus I suppose. I exited the structure with my ticket in hand and was dumped into their courtyard/​park they’ve got set up in the middle of the buildings. It was actually fairly nice, the trees were in bloom, the lawn was well taken care of and manicured, and there was only one lone bum sleepin on it.
I quickly found my building and entered. There’s a metal detector right there so nobody shoots or blows the place up. Security is good. I like being secure. I asked where to go to give all of my money for the tickets, and the girl working the x-​ray machine told me to go upstairs to the second floor. I followed her instructions and rushed to the escalator, fully expecting to see a huge line winding around the entire second floor much like the Mega Python from Sy-Fy’s classic monster movies.
When I arrived at the top of the escalator, and was surprised when the line wasn’t that bad. In addition, there were a lot of windows open, so it was actually moving right along. I must have hit the sweet spot. (It was a Thursday afternoon around eleven AM)
I stood in line for a few minutes, and before I knew it I was at a window paying the man. The teller lady behind the window seemed to be about a thousand years old, and had some difficulty with the newfangled electronic typing machines, but eventually with the help of her less ancient neighbor, she figured out the computer system and got the machine to accept my payments. I did find it mildly annoying that I had to be here in the first place. When I asked thousand year old teller, I was informed that the system was not set up to take phone or online payments.
Ironically, at this time I was overhearing a conversation with another teller to my right. The teller was informing my fellow lawbreaker that she could quickly and easily pay her fines online or on the phone. I partially wanted to interject and say ‘No, no you can’t. You’ll have to mail it, or come back here to take care of it.” but I figured I’d let them figure it out for themselves. Why ruin the life lesson?
Eventually after some time paying my ticket was done, all my paperwork was neatly highlighted, stapled together and handed back to me. Thousand year old teller said I was all done. I looked at my phone and discovered that it had been just under a half hour since I entered the building. Most of it spent behind the window. That was way better than the multiple hour afternoon nightmarish experiences I’d read about in earlier reviews. I had prepared myself for nightmare, and got much better. I got back to my car, and paid two paper dollars to the parking attendant on the way out I then made my way home. I still had several hours to kill before seeing Schoolteacher.

So all in all, besides the fact that I had to go there in the first place, I suppose I had a halfway decent experience at the Van Nuys Courthouse.

Just cause it’s a courthouse you only come here to pay for shit and the judge is a ugly mean lady

This place has really changed from all the times I’ve came here to pay off my speeding tickets but it’s still slow like always. They should hire more people because they can put millions into the structures.
The smaller original buildings need work but I’m sure they will get to it.

The Van Nuys Courthouse needs some renovating. The buildings lack any identifying numbers on them, so locating a building by address and street name becomes highly improbable. They have a ‘directory’ that has graffiti all over it and the buildings go by a name that, again, does not match any markings on the buildings themselves.
They have a cart vendor there selling coffee, hot dogs, chips and so on. It would be nice to have something a bit more official like a small souvenir store! Just kidding, but a walk in store or cafeteria would help relieve an already tense situation by being at the courthouse.
The rooms themselves, particularly the small claims court room, were a throwback to the 70’s. Depressing, outdated and did not look like our tax dollars were being spent to keep it up.
The courthouse uses volunteer mediators in small claims court. Those folks go through stressful situations, need to be able to diffuse and help plaintiffs and defendants come to a resolution without seeing a judge. That takes time, patience and skill. They should be compensated.
Can someone talk to the maintenance crew about the temperature inside the building? The thermostat was likely set to 60 degrees.
Need more seating. People stand for 30 to 60 minutes and there is no seating available. Give people more places to sit, gather their thoughts, go through their paperwork, and talk with loved ones. Again, a stressful situation needs comfort to help diffuse tensions.
Parking is paid either to a covered parking structure company for $ 10 or right across the street to an outdoor lot for $ 9.

No one like to report to Jury duty but we all have to do it this is part of our duty as an American citizen.
Today I met Laura Bailey, the person in charge of juror, and what a pleasure it was to have someone as nice as her to be in charge of this long and long day.
she was professional, informative, nice, funny, and very polite. Even the security people were nice and polite.
The whole process was done fast and very efficiently. Thank you

Everyone that works here is nice and very helpful… this the reason why it earned stars in my book.
The problem with this court is that it needs to be modernized. This place is about 15 years behind in regards to technology.
You have to mail in all legal documents because there is not an online option. There are only two document intake windows and one is usually closes… expect long wait time.
There is ONE computer available for the public to use to look up court information, therefore be ready to wait in line. Litigant related information is available to be searched online for a fee… this is the only contemporary technology feature that this court has (NOTE: most courts have this information available online for free).
The court rooms that I have dealt with usually run behind schedule. For example: if the courtroom is scheduled to open at 1:30pm…it won’t actually open until after 2pm.