San Diego Superior Court East Division

This is one of the cleanest. This is one of the safest. Easy to park. Easy to get to. Easy to get into.
Some of the lines for different departments can be long. So make time in your day to be here awhile.
Other than that court is court and usually isn’t a happy place to be.

You can hate it or you can love it, but in this country and in this city you WILL be selected for jury duty. And in this particular city that means you need to appear at a divisional courthouse.
I’ve been to this courthouse now five times for jury selection, and this past week I was FINALLY placed on a trial. Completing a trial was one of the most cathartic experiences I’ve ever had with my community members. I firmly believe that every American and San Diegan should serve a full trial as a juror.
As for the El Cajon branch, it is a positive place with the typical government «hurry up and wait» candor. I work in government so this doesn’t impact me personally, but if you personally believe that your time is more valuable than the person’s sitting next to you in jury selection, well, you may want to re-​think your existence. The jurors’ lounge is kept clean, and has reading materials to pass the time. Four TVs are set to ESPN, but they’ll change the channels at your request. Subtitles are non-​negotiable.
And they have Wi-​Fi! This is huge because nothing in this world is done offline anymore, and Wi-​Fi is pretty much the coup de grace of whether a place works or not. Password is on timesheet, login is your juror’s badge. They have a filter through their router, so only SFW material will be received. If you don’t know what this means, it means no porn, or things deemed inappropriate for public.
Cafeteria is slightly overpriced. A coke is $ 1 a can. Ouch. They do have a short order cook (nice fellow) who’s been there for years. I had pancakes and they were delish. Butter AND syrup, copious amounts of each. The county spares no expense. But if you would like Rubios, there’s an even more overpriced Rubios in the parking lot where Motor World is at.
The courtroom was comfortable and so was our deliberations office. I had a positive experience with the judge, bailiffs, attorneys, and the trial I served was quick. It was easy to follow instructions, and I understand most everything that was said by the prosecution, defense, judge, and by the bailiffs. But that was my experience.
2^nd floor lobby. If you’ve read any of my other reviews, you know just how much I like the dregs of society. Well, between the courtyard and the second floor lobby you can find every walk of life, because the second floor is dedicated to court processing. In El Cajon. The line goes clear out the door of the ground level on a good day. If you’ve had to wait in that line, well, I hope you learned your lesson and will make better choices. Waiting in that line is punishment enough.
All in all, I am thoroughly enamored with the El Cajon courthouse. It may just be a trailing serotonin high from finally being selected after 15 years, but whatever the cause I’m happy I got a chance to serve jury duty this week.

I know they try to make it a pain in the ass when you get a ticket but making it a full day process for a simple violation is why people dont show! Morning session check in…6 desks 1 clerk moving at a snails pace when there are 50 people in line. We pay all these taxes ect but no one works at the court house apparently. They need some serious revamping on the employees here…

The judge will get it right one day. Third judge on this matter but to b clear I purposefully did not present all my evidence. AND THE STUPID GIRL TEXTED ME SAYING SHE WAS ON HER WAY BEFORE COURT. WHILE BALIFF WAS CALLING OUT NAMES. I COULD HAVE HAD HER ARRESTED RIGHT THERE IN COURT FOE CIOLATING SO BLATANTLY COURT ORDERM. I DIDNT. For the record, I did the right thing I told the judge I value my friendship with my roommate more than I need to see this restraining order come to fruition (AGAINST his gf and ex roommate) and I proposed to the judge that I drop the restraining order if she will repair some of the damage that she did the bitch wouldn’t do it she said I was denied in small claims court (wrong it was a tv show where they r not bound by the californis bar rules and she brought up my record) and she wasn’t going to repair anything
The judge said she is not to contact me no contact means she cannot come to the house and thats all they wanted all she had to do was agreed to repair the windows the doors and my grandpa’s table and I would have been good so I was the bigger person she did the damage dude she could at least fix some of it so that’s on her. My roommate and I have no cause to fight bout nothing. Check ur beeatch boo. I am clear conscience.

Jury duty… hooray for me. I’m an old dude that still works for a living, but I’m still usually the youngest guy here. Do they just send out mass mailings to retirement and convalescent homes to fill the seats? 300 seats in the waiting room, ¼ empty, and the nastiest, mouth breathing people have to sit by me.
There’s a new trend, peeps, it’s called soap and water. Try it. Please.

I had Jury Duty this summer here. It went pretty good and I did not get on case. In fact I was excuse by 11:00 AM. The process was similar to other times gone. You go through security, where I was nicely greeted mind you, then you check and pick up your badge.
After using their Wifi to get a couple of Unilocal completed on my lap top, orientation began. The guy who conducted it was okay. He tried to incorporate some humor to his speech and demonstration, but it was okay. Some people laughed but most just starred. After his talk, he said he would be back at 9:15 am for an update, but he never showed up, so I kept writing reviews. It wasn’t until after 10:50 when we heard and they called the first groups and the rest of us were excused.
The jury lounge was comfortable enough, with some televisions, the all important WiFi access (password can be found on the time sheet), and they have a soda and snack machines (
). There is a cafeteria outside the jury room and an espresso and coffee cart out in front of the building.
Well, at least I did not get on a case…

Free parking. Free wifi. Finally got on a jury after 20 years of rejection, and I found it to be a really rewarding experience. 12 impartial people promising to be fair is a pretty great system. I feel better about what goes on inside a courtroom now that I’ve seen it for myself.

This courthouse is a bureaucratic nightmare. I traveled here to make some copies from some original court documents. I drove all the way from La Jolla on a Friday only to discover that they close early on Friday. I traveled there again today to try to make my copies.
Because of budget and staffing cuts, they now have one court clerk available and that clerk has to wait on an average of 50 people at any given time. You have to file a request for your documents and then return the next day to view and /​or request copies of the documents. So imagine having only one clerk available, who has to wait on people and then make copies as well?
Only three weeks ago, you could go here, request your documents, view them the same day and request copies. They had plenty of staff to assist the customers. Now they closed their cashier window and only have one court clerk to assist everyone.
Granted, if you don’t need to go here avoid this place at all costs. However, for the taxpayers and clients who need copies of their divorce records, child support documents, etc., if you go here prepare to wait and bring your lunch. They try to help but they are very under staffed and the public deserves better than this.

Well, obviously no one wants to be here for jury duty. But not too bad… so far. Come early to get shaded parking.
Area around here is pretty ghetto as far as shops and all. But they are within walking distance of the courthouse.
Only plus so far is the free wifi you get here, so bring a laptop, and yes they do have outlets you can use. But get to the room on the right if you can to use tables.
Long wait times to see if you get picked… basically 2 hours.
For those of you who haven’t served (my first time) you get paid by court $ 15 a day if picked as a juror. On average you may have to stay 3 – 5 days, possibly longer. But you can make an excuse if need be, they explain everything.
Overall it sucks to be here, but hey you get to see how shitty the justice system is.

Had to come for jury duty. Parking is bad, get there early or park on the street. Security to get in was not bad or too intrusive.
They have a small cafeteria that is pretty expensive, I recommend taking cash otherwise its a dollar charge if you want to get coffee or something small on a card. Keep in mind they do not accept any bills over $ 20.There are a lot of places to eat within walking distance though.
The jury duty selection not as buttoned up as it should have been. I sat there for hours and we didn’t hear anything nor did they call people up. Found out later it was because the two cases that were going to trial had been booked in the same court room. Duh!

This is a review of jury duty. To be sure, jury duty is seldom fun, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way:
I have zero issues with the voir dire process (this is what happens once you actually make it in the courtroom) itself and recognize it as a pretty awesome part of our democracy. But San Diego County HAS to figure out a more efficient way of deciding who makes it that far. When over half the people who report do not make it into a courtroom, that is a completely disrespectful use of citizens’ time. At least implement some sort of call-​in system so that people aren’t wasting entire workdays when they’re unlikely to be needed.
Here is a statistic that blew my mind. SD County sent out 869,000 summons in 2010, according to the U-​T. The registered voter base is about 1.5 million. So you are more than 50% likely to get a summons in any given year. Good lord.
The inefficiency alone should be grounds for a one-​star review, but this location at least saves face for a couple reasons. Mainly, the handful of jury-​wrangling employees here actually impressed me. They were knowledgeable, understanding, and somehow friendly! I think they can sympathize with the unfortunate inefficiencies in the process but their hands are tied. And while the facility itself is just ‘meh,’ it’s not awful. Getting through the metal detector is easy. They do have free wi-​fi in the jury lounge – a nice plus. The cafeteria is passable. Thankfully you can spread out at a table there (creating a potential mobile office) and still hear the speakers from the jury lounge.
I reported for duty at 8:00 on a Monday morning with about 250 others. The friendly clerk finished orientation around 8:30, but that was followed by two hours of ZERO activity. Think about it: waste two hours of 250 people. At $ 25/​hour (the average hourly wage in CA), that’s $ 25,000 of potential GDP down the toilet in a single morning. Yay, math. Anyway, at about 10:30 they began calling names in the jury lounge. Sadly, mine was called, and I was asked to report back at 1:30. That’s right, a nearly three-​hour lunch break for me. Wow. When I reported back after lunch, the jury wrangler informed us that the 1:30 group wasn’t needed as the trial attorneys asked for a continuance and they’d be using the next day’s jury pool instead. So I was free to go. In short, ’twas a wasteful six-​hour detour to start off my week.
TIP: DO NOT waste your time trying to find parking in the dedicated courthouse structure. There is dedicated jury parking in the adjacent strip mall off of Magnolia. You’ll save a couple minutes because it’s closer to the freeway, you won’t wait to find a spot, and the walk is almost as close.

My son 22 was convicted two weeks ago for a crime he didn’t commit! The jury was tainted and the judge said it was ok! A lot of evidence was hidden by the DA and he conspired with the two detectives from the Sheriff’s Department to get my son sent to prison for something he did not do! The names of the real assailants were given, but the acknowledgement was hidden by the DA! He also covered up the fact that in the preliminary’s witnesses testified that a guy with blonde hair and a hat hit that guy. My son has black hair! Half of our witnesses were not called to testify! The DA pled out two of the people who were involved in that incident in order to shut them up and not tell the fact that my son was not even there! My son may now do 15 years for something he didn’t do! I need your help! Protest anything to help my son! This is a nightmare! The jury was tainted because three or four of the ladies said comments to us in the hall way and down stairs by the tables in front of the court house! The attorney told the judge and he said“it doesn’t matter”!

Not fluid at all, staff not that helpfull, u should understand that we absolutely don’t want to b there and all of us r ‘not guilty’ U guys signed up to be here, act like it

Parking lot fills up really early in the morning, but some additional parking around the corner on the street.

This place is ghetto.
I have been here numerous times to testify, handle traffic violations, and other misc court stuff.
The lines here are long and the place doesn’t really have it’s stuff together.

Parking Tickets, Speeding Tickets, Tweekers, East County Weirdos, and Fat Baliff’s… The lines at least move fast, and they are always happy to take away your money from you, with or without the option of traffic school. I will be back here in less than 30 days to make another payment, get in some good weirdo people watching and to throw away my money on a city that already has the highest taxes than any other city in SD. Hopefully my money to El Cajon will go for another Air Conditioned Brand New Police station or a craptastic El Cajon City sign, cuz they front like their cool like Kennisgton or Hillcrest…

I rated this place 5 stars so you would look at the review. If you go to the San Diego public library for a book called (not all branches have it so look it up on their website).
Fight your ticket & win in California /​Brown, David Wayne, 1949–
Dewey call number is 345.794/BROWN
You can learn a lot about how to fight your ticket. I’m helping a friend with his ticket right now and we have found so many weird things in the law we think he will win easily by a trial by written declaration (You don’t even have to go to court for this)!
So avoid this place read the book and fight!
I get nothing for recommending this. I didn’t write the book, and public libraries are free to use! You could probably also find it at the county libraries too! Your tax dollars at work.

I got my Jury Doodie summons at my parents house in the East County. I had to be in El Cajon at 8am on Tuesday morning. I usually don’t have a reason to go to El Cajon. Sometimes I want to visit Nick’s Liquor and Hiram’s Guns, but seeing as how all my booze and firearm requirements had been satisfied there was little reason for me to go.
The whole procedure was explained to us really well by the staff. We got to see a standard video designed to explain how the justice system worked and swell our civic pride. We had to wait for them to select people to be on the jury. I had forgotten to bring reading material, but luckily they have a library with an extensive collection. If you enjoy your read, you can take the book home with you. Not too shabby.
After deciding how many attractive women there were in the room (four) and making up stories and silly voices for some of the people, I walked over to the library. I scanned all of the books. I settled on a John Irving novel the 158 pound Marriage. It’s about a love rhombus that is formed between two married couples, it deals with carnal desires and the consequences of acting on them. (No Fourgy.) It’s not as good as the World According to Garp.
They also have a few tables where you can work on puzzles, which I can appreciate. The case I might have been assigned to, settled before trial, saving the taxpayers money and my afternoon.