Wiley W Manuel Courthouse

It was so easy to get in and out of this place. I went to court for a traffic ticket and everyone was quick to answer any questions I had. My ticket was dismissed, and I went home a happy camper. Their bathrooms could be cleaner, but the area isn’t that great and people are constantly coming in and out of the court house.

Check in was easy and the seating area for the Jury pool very comfortable with big easy chairs and tables for those who needed space to work with thei laptops. Free Wifi. Couple of vending machines. Clean restrooms. The clerk tried to cheer folks up with his humorous recounting of how the day would play out, and when he told us there had been a plea bargain and would could all go home.

Judge CULVER. This ones for you.
Before our plea/​session started we were told to watch a video stating OUR RIGHTS. And Culver pretty much told us we have no other rights but stating: Guilty, Not Guilty, Traffic School, or No contest.
If you plead guilty, he will not listen to your circumstances during the incident of your ticket. He will ask «how will you make payment» and then dismiss you. He doesn’t care about your story or who you are. Culver doesn’t want to hear your «story» unless the other party (cop) is in the courtroom. Oh and let’s not forget, Culver can «read perfectly fine» so no need to point out a cops signature to help him out…(another person before me was trying to show proof of his fix-​it ticket) So rude.
So in other words, if you’re a first time ticket offender and you wanted to come to court to see if being a first time offender would minimize your fees, forget it. You have to plead NOT GUILTY in order to be heard at all… Meaning you would have to come in a SECOND TIME, wait 2 hours in the cold, go through another process probably to have him charge you with something else and risk not being able to take traffic school if your cop shows up. Just pay your fine and move out of there. Pay it over the phone or mail a check to avoid the extra processing fees.
Unless you got a ticket for not having 1) insurance 2) license 3) registration DO NOT EXPECT TO GET YOUR TICKET REDUCED. You’re better off paying it by mailing in a check!
Good Luck people :)

This has got to be one of the most ridiculous and condescending wastes of time possible!
If you’re ever driving through San Leandro, AVOID the right hand turn at Teagarden and Marina Blvd! THATS RIGHT. TEAGARDEN AND MARINA BLVD.
At that intersection, you’re bound to get a ticket even if you do a right-​on-​red after stopping for a few seconds.
If you have the slightest thought of thinking you’ll get away with defending your case and trying to BELIEVE like a southern preacher in his sermon praising almighty jesus for some sympathy, you’re wrong.
You do not get to exercise your democratic rights, and this courthouse exercises the classic case of pitting minorities against minorities. Here you’ll find a bunch of monkeys in black robes meandering over your case like they actually are doing something significant in life. What you’ll find are 20 other people seated in the courthouse with you for the same intersection and same traffic footage.
The court computers have a bit of lag and your footage will look sped up… and that’s justification enough for you to pay that fine. Somehow my tax dollars fund internet explorer, and windows XP, and old, psycotic judges who are on a massive powertrip.
The clerks you encounter gossip with each other, laughing and talking all while ordering you around like infants. It’s ridiculous. They’re probably also on a power trip because they’re being paid minimum wage.
Now, I’m not saying I’m a lawyer by any means, but I think I’m perfectly capable of defending myself… and lol, they don’t offer you any public defenders. Talk about a real court.
SAVE YOURSELF TIME BY:
— Sending in your plea through mail
— Not wasting 2 days to 1. arraign your trail 2. go to your trail where practically nothing will change.
I’m proud to give this one star review to the judicial mister (you don’t get the honor of getting called honor), Taylor Culver who was a sassy enough in all his scripted talk, and his ridicule for saying I looked like someone who’s probably college educated but «I won’t be able to make a case for myself against the law». Absolutely pathetic.
Overall, legalized extortion and you’re not getting out of this. I have completely lost my faith in our justice system and honestly, french this courthouse!

For me, its always kinda hard to give a positive rating to courthouses, mainly because I usually end up there under negative circumstances. I’ll start off with the positive aspects of this place, its very well maintained, security is highly efficient, and its very convenient that they have a refreshment stand in the lobby. Now for the negatives, if you come here be prepared to wait in line for quite some time, the security line moves relatively quick, but the other departments seem to move at a casual pace (I was 10^th in line for the traffic division and it took almost 35 minutes to get service). Also, once you move to the front be sure to have all your paperwork ready, signed and dated (if they have to look up your file, they may not be able to locate it and you might have to come back). On one visit I had all my S*** together and in order, I payed my fine, and I assumed that was the end of my court visits, but I was definitely wrong. I got a call 2 weeks later from a woman explaining to me that I had additional fines because I didn’t pay the originals, which I did in fact, so I had to start my whole process all over again; this time with proof of payment in hand (This caused my license to remain suspended for almost 2 weeks longer). I wish the best to everyone and hope that no one has to come here, but if you do; bring some Advil and be prepared for a minor headache or massive migraine.

Living in Alameda County for the last 27 years, I’ve been receiving an annual jury duty summons. After calling in year after year the evening before the date of summons, I’ve been excused and considered served for the year. Well, a new year and came a new summons and this time I was called in to the Wiley Manuel Courthouse on Washington and 7^th Sts.
After proceeding through security at the entrance, prospective jurors proceed to check-​in at the jurors room on the third floor. A large room with a mixture of outdated plastic and soft-​cushioned chairs with tables scattered around. We were asked to watched a film on the jury process, but with three 26″ CRT TVs, yes CRTs, hanging from the ceiling, viewing was limited to depending where you were seated. There’s free fast Wi-​Fi in the courthouse, but did notice that some people had trouble locating outlets for their laptops.
Our jury pool was then directed to the courtroom #109 on the fifth floor where we all assembled. The case was a 2 count misdemeanor concealed in a vehicle weapons charge. The first 18 names were called to for the jury pool and lucky me, I was called. After each of us answered the fourteen questions on the sheet, subsequent questioning by the DA and public defender, and dismissals, I became a member of the jury over the course of two half-​day sessions.
With testimony from only three witnesses, opening and closing argument in one day, we got the case for deliberation. Our jury deliberated and in an hour arrived at a unanimous decision. The decision was rendered and my two days of civic duty was complete. It was my first jury service and it was a pleasant experience.
During breaks outside the courtroom, there are soft cushioned benches for you to sit with a view of Downtown Oakland. Perfect view of the Warriors practice facilities atop the Marriott parking structure. Should I look forward to my next summons in 12 months?

Arrive here early if you want to take care of your business and get on your way to work. I arrived here at 7am on a Monday morning and already there was a line. Great… If you have to pay off a fix it ticket, I’d say save yourself the time and headache and just write a check. Line here goes very slowly, as well. This place is on par with the DMV or post office, in other words, terrible.

I should be chargin them for displaying my talents in public… Can’t stand court.

Good place to wait in line for an hour or so to try to sign up for traffic court. If your jury duty takes you all the way to deliberations, you might get some free sodas.

In Oakland court today for a trial on a 3^rd DUI within 10 years which carries a minimum of 120 days in jail and up to 1 year. The client had a diabetic emergency at the time of driving and breath test with a glucose reading of 470. This is 171 points higher than allowable to be admitted into the jail. At this level, changes in body occur that cause internal changes that reproduce alcohol making it appear that someone is drunk, and the breath test to read higher. This was a nice man with a difficult medical problem, good judge, and good District Attorneys who understood the physical disability. A good resolution. Happy client, but still ill with a serious disease. Hope he does better with his illness.

The Wiley W Manuel Courthouse deserves 0 star. I would be embarrassed if this place was named after me. Horrible customer service.
The judge and the crew were very late to the 9AM hearing — rude! If you are asking people to be on time, you need to practice what you preach and show up on time. We were treated like criminals, ignorant children, or second class citizens.
My car did not pass the smog test and although I paid my registration on time, DMV did not send me the sticker until the smog situation was resolved. To clear the smog test, I would have to pay $ 5000 to fix it, more than my car was worth. PLUS, it completely stopped running and I had to tow it to the dealer to trade it in. I came to clear my fix-​it ticket and wanted to reduce the $ 285 fee. I told the judge I no longer owned the car and it was basically scrapped. He wouldn’t reduce the fine — show absolutely no mercy.
The tardy, ‘honorable’ judge said: «It doesn’t matter if you’re poor, fat, ugly, cute, on welfare, black, white, no one is getting a fine reduction. Just tell me your plea: not guilty, guilty, or no contest and how you are going to pay your fine».
Get off your power trip and intimidation game. Our tax money pays for your salary and you are here to serve the public, not bullying people.
I felt BULLIED.
I left feeling absolutely disgusted with the whole experience.

²⁰¹³⁄₀₆₈
I admit my review would probably be different had I been on jury duty, or here for some other reason other than to be a «shadow jurist» for pay.
Sure, the line is long. And it sucks having to line up outside if you’re caught in the rain.
But compared to lining up at the SF courthouse, it’s not as bad. Or as gritty. The SF location is literally next door to the jail, so I personally thought the people lining up here in Oakland were not as seedy-​looking.
The location is in a park-​like setting. The guards here were always super nice during the times I went. But I’m usually non-​threatening looking. Getting old does that to a person.
I really only had to go up a floor to get to a courtroom. The bathroom happened to have a door with a loose latch. I screwed in the latch manually each time I used it.
You’d think that for a courtroom, the doors leading into it would be *quieter*. But each time I had to leave, the door made a banging noise that irritated the court reporter. She gently scolded us to close the door more gently.
I forget which court room I was in, but it was standard, I guess. Seating was purposefully uncomfortable (but that didn’t prevent some of us from nodding off during the droning). Equipped for A/​V stuff for lawyers to get the point across. Tables large enough to intimidate the other side with a team of lawyers and tons of books of evidence to spread around. Outside of the courtroom were several benches to wait on. And huge windows overlooking the courtyard (and whatever line forms of people waiting to get in).
Also, the food options near this courthouse were definitely more varied than the SF one.

Morons doesn’t begin to tell the story. I got a simple insurance ticket. I forgot to put the new cards in the car. It happens. I paid the fine and sent in the proof. By happenstance my insurance rolls on the day of the ticket. Those idiots didn’t accept it and sent it back with a letter written by someone who obviously didn’t finish the 3^rd grade.
«Insurance proof is not valid. Auto liability of insurance must show you had cover on the day you were stop. Policy date shown on the exact day is not acceptable as proofs of correction»
Seriously. The letter contained no further instructions. No phone number. Nothing. The next missive I received from these clowns was a $ 910 bill followed by a $ 1210 bill and a suspended license.
No one is helpful. No one cares that they made a mistake and no one wants to fix their own screw up. It’s probably going to cost me $ 1210 to get my license back. For a lousy insurance card ticket. Asshats.

dealing with ticket is horrible. The only option is drop in court so if you wait in line, the only they are willing to do is extend the court date if you miss the time. you’ll have to come back another 6am to wait in a long line to deal with them. one extra point because the lady helping me was decent and not rude.

Why am I bothering to write a review about this place? Its not like you would go here willingly. If you’re unfortunate enough to be saddled with a red light violation (as yours truly), you’ll be surprised at how easy your trip to the courthouse will be. I sailed through the line only to be greeted with tons of attitude (surpise surprise), and basically was made to feel like a retard for even bothering to come in. Thankfully the whole experience lasted 10 minutes. Oh– parking is easy as well.

Goodbye Day. Exit Stage Left.
That was the feeling after my four-​day jury duty stint.
I sat in on a Criminal Misdemeanor case (2 charges of drunk driving).
The location is in a section called Old Oakland.
The courthouse itself is a dry-​looking building of concrete and stucco.
It is located across from the Oakland Police Department with several bail-​bonds business across 7^th avenue.
You can park in a few parkings lots about one block away. Of course, if you are a adventurist, you can attempt free street parking about 3 – 4 blocks away. For me, no thanks.
As you enter the builidng, you must go through an airport-​security. The builidng opens at 7:45am and there is a long-​line of people awaiting to pay their parking violations on the ground floor. It’s not too bad after 8am, but there is a larger line as the time draws nears to 9am.
I overheard the lady on the PA announce «please don’t yell at the worker, as they did not give you the ticket». Haha.
There is a lunch cart near the elevators if you are that hungry.
The jury assembly room is on the third floor. The dude-​clerk working has a quick dry-​wit and made the waiting experience not as painful as I expected.
The jury assembly room has many cushy chairs and extremely fast WiFi (about 8MBps clocked). So… bring your laptop and other wireless devices to take advantage of the wait time. (I watched episodes of KBS Bridal Mask up to Episode 14 hehe).
The courhouse is also close to Oakland Chinatown, which was terrific for me.
Overall, the experience was not as bad as I mind-​melted it to be.

SUCH an epic waste of time!
If you’ve been sent one of those lovely photo cards in the mail from Alameda County, capturing you doing a «California roll» style right-​on-​red, let me spare you the hassle of showing up to Wiley W Manuel Courthouse thinking you’ll have the slightest chance to defend your case, request a reduced fine, or exercise your democratic rights. Instead you’ll find a bunch of mindless government monkeys on a power trip, who will spout patronizing scripted lines at you and ignore any sensible facts you present. Who appoints these ridiculous people anyway? My tax dollars are funding this circus of egomaniacs? Depressing.
I will say, the ladies at the info window were pleasant enough and surprisingly informative when I went to sign-​up for walk-​in court. But once I showed up at 2pm for my hearing (along with about 50 other mistakenly optimistic citizens), it was an utter joke. Court is supposed to start at 2pm. We’ve all got 2 hours on our meters. At 2:20, the judge is nowhere to be found. Then he comes in and taps away on his computer for 15 minutes. The clerks are chatting and laughing and making us feel like idiots, since we aren’t even allowed to read a book, let alone whisper or laugh. One of the clerks keeps barking orders at us like we’re kindergarteners, like «sit up straight!» and «I’d better not see you talking to your neighbor!» Aye Aye Captain Control Freak.
Finally, court is in session. The judge gives us a rundown of how it’ll work: he calls our name, we step up to the microphone (ooooh yay, just like Judge Judy!), he tells us the charge against us, we give our plea. What he didn’t tell us is that virtually nothing will change when we stand up there. If you’re guilty, there’s no chance of reducing the fine. He’ll just say «how soon can you pay that?» and you’ll go home wondering why you showed up to court when you could have stayed home, spared yourself the ghetto freak show, wrote a written declaration and received with the same dismal results from the comfort of your own home.
So basically, unless you have some serious evidence to get you off the hook, don’t even think you’ll have a shot at sympathy or compromise here. $ 490 for not making a 10-​second stop at the red light is highway robbery, but «write to your state legislature» if you’ve got a problem with it. Because we all have the time for that.
FYI, paid parking is pretty easy in this area. Or, here’s an idea… if you’re a Club One member you can use your parking validation coupon for 2 free hours and walk a little further.
I’m proud to award this 1-​star review to such a deserving recipient. Wiley W Manuel Courthouse crew, you’re quite remarkable!
Oh, and how funny is it to Check-​In on your Unilocal app and see the message «Keep it up to become a regular!» Ha, me thinks not.

It’s now been 3 times that I’ve been called for Jury Duty here at the Wiley W. Manual Courthouse. It was only the 2^nd time that I actually showed up and that one involved a snarly Deputy at the Security Check Point, a lot of waiting in the Jury Room, much talk of what an Citizen’s honor this is (I agree), and the start of Jury Selection until the Defendant decided at the last minute to settle. So it was One Day, One Trial, and I’m Out. And «Rich» with all that Jury Pay.
I called in the other times and the nice recorded voice told me that my service was not needed. Darn! All those «Guilty Guilty Guilty» or «I Plead Insanity» (Remember Cheech and Chong?) Jury fantasies went down the drain… It is important to call in, otherwise being a «No Show» would not be a good thing.
Historical Footnote:
Wiley W. Manuel was an associate justice on the Supreme Court of California from 1977 — 1981 and the first African American to serve on our State’s High Court. Justice Manuel was known for his dedication to pro bono work.

This is the ghettoest court house I’ve ever been to and I’ve lived in Stockton. It’s ridiculous how early you have to line up in order to meet the cutoff for walk-​in traffic court. I came here with my friend to deal with her ticket and we arrived at 7AM to find that the line already snaked around the corner. I swear the first person in line must’ve spent the night there.
Most judges will give you a fine reduction just for showing up in court, but the judge who dealt with my friend’s ticket said, «It doesn’t matter if you’re poor, fat, ugly, cute, on welfare, no one is getting a fine reduction. I’m the only person that matters in this room.» Umm, okay, get off your high horse. You’re a freaking traffic court judge.
And to top it all off, I saw a lady drink a hot pink liquid out of a mayonnaise jar in line. Skeeeetch.

I just got back from my second date with traffic court. I kissed her goodbye and hopefully will never see her again.
TRAFFIC COURT SURVIVAL TIPS:
— Walk in court registration starts at 8am. The first 120 cases are taken at 9:30, and 50 unlucky shmos have to hang around until 2pm. You want to make sure you’re in the first group. Show up BEFORE 7am and plan on being there for at least 4 hours.
— Parking around here blows. Take BART to 12^th St Downtown Oakland and walk the 4 blocks.
— Leave your pocket knife and anything metal at home so you can get through the security. I didn’t know this and they made me throw away my keychain sized Gerber multi-​tool because it had a blade on it. Never mind that the blade was shorter than a key and would have made a lousy weapon.
— Dress like you deserve respect and you’ll get it. There are plenty of people that come in here with grubby jeans and a t-​shirt. Don’t be one of them. Guys: at a minimum, wear a shirt with buttons and a collar.
— If you’re fighting a ticket from a red light camera, don’t bother. They have a lovely video of you smiling as you drive through the red light, and there’s a cop who’s job it is to meet you there and show you the video. He WILL show up, and you’ll just end up having wasted half a day to pay the same darn fee you could have paid from the comfort of your home.