Mass Commonwealth of Middlesex Superior Court

This review is in regards to a very pleasant exchange I had with an employee at Middlesex Superior. Ms. Pinckney, who works in the clerk’s office, was extremely friendly and helpful to me when I called regarding obtaining a copy of civil complaint. Very courteous and helpful. This is sadly very rare among many court employees, so I was delighted when I spoke with Ms. Pinckney in the Clerk’s Office. She helped me with what I needed quickly and kindly! For questions about dockets/​obtaining complaint copies, ask for Ms. Pinckney. She will help you and won’t make you feel like a terrible person for calling/​asking a question (like many MA court employees do; see Middlesex Probate and Family Court!)

I came here for jury duty yesterday. The place was still open even though there was a pretty big snowstorm the day before. Still, that affected the jury pool in that only about half the originally scheduled potential jurors showed up.
The building complex is pretty new as I watched it being constructed a few years ago. I especially liked the garage parking as it was pretty easy to find parking. The exit to the garage was also right next to the entrance of the court building such that I did not have to walk in the cold much.
There’s the usual security check at the lobby and that was pretty quick. The elevators were easy to locate and the interior was well maintained.

Just did my day of jury duty here and agree that it was a very organized and pleasant experience. I didn’t end up getting called and was dismissed around noon. The Law Library WiFi was either not working, or too overloaded to be much use, unfortunately.
One tip for when everyone rushes down to Dunkin for the morning break: if you want to avoid the line there is a Stop & Shop right around the corner that has its own DD. I walked about an extra two minutes, got a coffee at DD and a pastry from the Stop & Shop bakery.

I brought my laptop case with me. In it was my work laptop, my mifi, and my ipad. I arrived a little before 8:00am and went through security and then up to the third floor. Gave my filled out juror form to the guy at the desk and got my juror number.
Sat myself down next to power outlet and was good to go and did my work. Thought to myself — damn I should have brought a couple of bottles of water with me too…
8:30am — juror video + judge who stated that jurors were needed today. This is when your number comes into play. The first 70 or so jurors were called up to the courtroom for juror selection. Anyone above the number was told that they needed to hang tight but could go for a break until about 10am.
I was in the group that needed to go up. In the courtroom they go in order starting from 1 to fill the jury with 14 jurors. This is a long process. The jury was full before they got to my number. They told us to go back down to the third floor.
Went back to my spot and did some more work.
10:30am — next trial. New numbers called… Again they go by number. Wherever they left off plus another 100 or so. Went upstairs to another courtroom. Same process as before to fill the jury with 14 jurors. At this point I wished I had a magazine that wasn’t on my iPad.
1:00pm — jury still not filled so they dismissed us for an hour lunch break. Everyone went to dunkin donuts and the little lunch spot next door (subs, sandwiches, pastas, etc.). There’s also Strega right next door too.
2:00pm — number is called but didn’t need to serve. Officer said I could peace out. Jetted out of there at around 2:30pm extremely happy that I wasn’t picked.
In summary: expect to be waiting around a lot but it doesn’t mean you cannot be productive. I got a lot of work done on my jury duty day. bring your electronics including power cords. Bring water. Bring a paper magazine to tide you over in case you are in the courtroom. A higher juror number seems to double edged sword. You are less likely to serve bc by the time they get to you the jury is probably already filled but you also need to wait around longer…

I have brought suit in this court, used the library, and called the Clerk’s office for information numerous times, and they always exceeds expectations.
A jewel in the rough.

Well hello there citizen and welcome to jury duty. That is, unless you’re a lawyer or a plaintiff and defendant, in which case, well… err…
Anyways, chances are you are here for jury duty. You’re not happy about it, in fact you’re miserable, mostly because of the inconvenience but unless you’re going through a hardship, just grow a pair and get over it. It’s not that bad.
You’ll be expected to arrive by 8AM and park in the large parking lot. You’ll then proceed through security and then you’ll check-​in on the third floor before sitting in a large room. You’ll wait around and eventually the 150+, randomly selected jurors will fill the room and a video will be played for you after a short speech from one of the officers (and possibly a judge).
At that point, it will almost be 9:20AM-ish and you’ll be on a break until 10AM during which you can either remain in the room or go grab a snack or some coffee. Then there’s more waiting around. In fact, chances are, you’ll be spending most of your time waiting there. You are allowed to bring electronics including laptops and an iPad, and there’s even a free wifi network you can use (the network’s name is LawLibrary).
At some point, depending on number of cases on the day’s docket, you might be called to go up to a courtroom for either a civil or criminal case — if that’s the case, they’ll take attendance and you’ll join a group of jurors up to a different floor. It wasn’t my case and in most cases you’ll know whether or not you’ll be serving by 1PM the latest.
They do a pretty decent job trying to make things less painful and did a good job at communicating with us. I spend four and half hours in there reading and playing on my iPad before being dismissed. It wasn’t all that much fun and in many ways, I was a bit disappointed to not have had the chance to actually serve. For some and in a lot of cases most, it seems like there’s a fifty-​fifty chance you’ll serve. It’s a very busy courthouse with 15 courtrooms. You’ll be waiting regardless, but just know that being recently redone, the building is nice and the chairs comfortable. There’s vending machines, clean bathrooms, wifi and air conditioning. It could be much worse.

I performed my civic duty yesterday and was blown away by how warm, genuinely friendly, sincerely helpful and personable the staff behaved. (Do I call them staff? They probably have a more accurate title, so forgive me. I mean everyone from the judge to the bailiff to the guards controlling the metal detector at the entrance.) I must admit I expected grumpy, unhappy, unhelpful people similar to the attitudes I’ve encountered at the RMV. Completely the opposite! There was patience, humor and intelligence in every direction we were given. Also clarity! Everything was extremely clear, simple and easy to understand. I was never confused on what was expected of a potential juror. My favorite part was the marketing skew that all the language used by the staff employed. Although we HAVE to do jury duty, they phrased it that we chose to willingly help out the judicial system and they took pains to explain how our attendance as potential jurors benefited the entire community (the reason is that parties are more willing to settle if they are faced with the prospect of a trial of their peers just waiting in a room to hear the proceedings). As the people in the video we watched stated «I would do jury duty again.»

Called for jury duty? Here is the run down:
Follow the directions on your info sheet — they are more useful than this of your GPS. If you’re coming from the south, make sure that you leave some time to navigate the 93N/​95S interchange. The whole trip from Somerville took me about 45 minutes.
Once you’re off the highway, follow the directions on your sheet and then follow the signs for the court. They are plentiful and idiot proof. There is free parking for jurors, which I think is awesome.
You go through security (remove your belt!) and then go up to the third floor. Make sure you filled out the back of your sheet at home; they will now check it and assign you a number. You sit down and wait. Get a seat towards the front if you want a shot at seeing the awesome video about how great jury duty is.
It’s now about 8 am, if you got there on time. Nothing will happen for about 30 minutes. I hope you brought something to read, but if you didn’t, there are old magazines by the check in counter. It’s okay to eat and drink in here. It’s also okay to work on a laptop, so if you really want to get work done, you can. (There is free wifi and outlets around the room — as well as a separate room with a table in it for folks to work on. Aka don’t tell your boss but you could totally work here. Or watch TV shows and movies for a few hours. I won’t tell.)
Around 8:30 the officer will welcome and orient you. He is funny, give him a smile. Then you watch the video, which is fairly recent and produced like a campaign ad for jury duty. This is followed by a welcome from a judge, who will tell you that he, too, didn’t want to do jury duty when he was called, but then found it to be a fascinating experience. (Note: No matter how tired you are, do not stretch in front of the judge. Apparently it is considered rude and he will call you out on it.)
By this time it’s shortly after 9 am. The officer will announce that it is time for the morning break and tell everyone how to get to the Dunkin Donuts around the corner. He’ll tell you to reconvene at ten of 10. (Despite the fact that the DD gets mobbed, it is very efficient, so it’s worth a go.)
After that: It depends on the day. When I went, there was only one case on the docket and it plead out, so we were dismissed around 11:30 or so. There was a lot of waiting (and playing of Angry Birds). But I’ve heard that for other folks, that’s when you get called up to be impaneled.
Overall, it was a relatively painless day of jury duty. One day/​one trial means I won’t be called for the next three years, even though I basically spent a morning doing nothing. Not a bad way to serve!

The last time I was at this courthouse I was suffering from a bad case of the flu, so I’d postponed my jury duty session for a year. Despite my feverish stupor, I still remembered what a hoot the facilitating officer was.
A year later and I still had a good experience — the facility was very easy to locate, there was enough parking for the jurors who were called for duty (I think there were 75 of us that day), and security is thorough.
This time around they showed an updated video that explained the importance of our civic duty as jurors, which included a section of testimonials regarding how fulfilling jury duty is. It was highly informative and so much cleaner than the 90’s video that had been shown a year earlier.
We were allowed a short break afterward, in which we could grab some breakfast from the Dunkin Donuts or the convenience store located in the next building over. When you leave the building and reenter, you have to go through security again (even with all your food items and belongings).
About 45 minutes later, we were called back to the main waiting area to await for our numbers to be called. Luckily for me, my juror pool and I were all dismissed, since the defendant pleaded guilty — a nice example of the one day /​one trial policy. I won’t get called again for another three years, although when I do, I hope it’s for this courthouse.

It might seem strange that I’m rating a courthouse on Unilocal,but I have to hand it to our local judicial system for doing a really good job to merit this review.
I had jury duty today and enjoyed going to this easy-​to-​find facility just off Route 95 /​Winn Street on the Burlington/​Woburn border. There is ample surface and garage parking.
Security is tight, as you’d expect at any courthouse, so you go through a metal detector and run your items through the conveyor belt, just like at the airport.
Once you’re on the third floor, you wait in line, hand in your paperwork, and get a number with a barcode. After everyone’s checked in, a court officer with an excellent sense of humor explains the rules, shows a 17-​minute video clearly made in the 80’s, a judge with an equally excellent sense of humor gives you a short talk, and then everyone gets just about an hour break.
After that, they start calling numbers for the first trial. If you’re not called, you continue to relax in the jury pool room. If you are summoned, you’ll proceed to one of the ultra-​modern, high-​tech court rooms on the higher floors. Depending on the case, the judge may speak to you personally, or you may only have a sidebar if you raised your hand as Yes to one of their group questions.
Then they start to seat the jury; if you end up in a seat, you might still be dismissed by one of the lawyers with or without cause (you don’t actually find out). If you are dismissed for any reason, you go back to the jury pool. If you’re seated, they’ll give you instructions on when to return the next day for trial.
The best part is that Massachusetts has a 1 day or 1 trial policy: if you don’t get seated on a jury, you only have to go to the courthouse for 1 day. Then you aren’t called for 3 years.
Overall:
— The facility does not have any eateries or a cafeteria, but there are several nearby; they mentioned a convenience store with a Dunkin Donuts in very close proximity
— Give yourself enough time to clear security (not airport time, but at least 10 minutes or so)
— Bring a book; you’ll need it. You can bring a laptop and use your cell phone, but only in the jury room and other designated areas (NOT in the courtroom)