unusual for government.”
SERVING IN STYLE Yaroslavsky, who said former presiding Judge Alan Haber made a persuasive case for the new courtrooms, also played a vital role in getting Santa Monica Courthouse’s new $2 million jury room, which opened in 2002.
Jurors in Santa Monica are now able to get gourmet coffee, check e-mail, enjoy ocean views and recline on plush couches while watching DVDs on a 42-inch television as they wait for their trials to begin.
The juror assembly room, located on the third floor of the Santa Monica Courthouse, has been heralded as the “crown jewel” of the county’s court system. Juror assembly rooms are essentially a waiting area where jurors gather before being selected for a trial.
Court officials say about 150 jurors are called into Santa Monica court on a daily basis and the average juror will spend two hours waiting to be selected for a trial. Between 7,000 and 10,000 people are called into the LA court system each day, said William MacLaughlin, the presiding judge of the LA Superior Court System.
“Unfortunately, they spend more time in jury rooms than we wish, but hopefully we will become more efficient in using our jurors,” he told the group on Friday. “We need to change how we do business and recognize the changing needs.”
The Santa Monica juror room includes a kitchenette area with refrigerator, microwave and vending machines. There is an office center with coin-operated fax and photocopy machines, along with 17 cubicles where jurors can plug their lap-tops into digital modem lines free of charge and surf the Internet.
The westside of the room is connected to a large outdoor patio where splashes of the ocean can be spotted through rows of beachfront hotels and office buildings. More than 30 lockers have been installed to give jurors a place to store their belongings for free while they are listening to lawyers pontificate in the courtrooms below.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 2, 2005. Read the original PDF.