Courthouse signs for rent: courtroom numbers, jury rooms and court rules

Courtroom numbers, jury rooms and hallway arrows

The book lists the courtroom door signs in three sets, and the set decides the hallway's look: Courtroom 4, 5, 7 and 8 in black/silver plastic at 14 by 3 inches (S-3017 to S-3020), Courtroom 4, 5 and 6 in silver/black at 18 by 3 (S-3021 to S-3023), and Courtroom 9 in gold/black at 16 by 4 (S-3024). Neither of the first two counts straight through, since the 14 inch set skips 6 and the 18 inch set stops at 6, so doors 4 to 9 in a row draw on all three.

The jury room signs share courtroom numbers: 4 and 5 with the door signs, and 22 and 23 with the S-3068 directional. Jury Room 4, 5 and 22 are silver/black at 9 by 5 inches (S-3025 to S-3027), the color order of the 18 inch set, and Jury Room 23 is brown/white at 15 by 5½ inches with the arrow in the sign, pointing right on S-3028a, with 2 in the book, and left on S-3028b. S-3068 carries Courtroom 22, 23 and 24 with right arrows in the same brown/white, at 25½ by 20 inches, so it can mark the way to a second wing, though EC's book has no Courtroom 22, 23 or 24 door sign.

The other hallway arrows each name a court: Juvenile Court pointing left at two sizes (S-3029, S-3030), and Juvenile Court Depts. 190, 191 and Criminal Courts pointing right (S-3031, S-3032). S-2201, To Courtrooms B and C Law Library, has no arrow in its book wording, and neither it nor any of the hallway arrows is marked double-sided. Of the wording the book gives for these signs, S-3056 alone names a city: it reads Los Angeles Superior Court Dept. 3 Room 235 2nd Floor, with (213) 555-1100 in its text.

Department, office and hearing room doors

Department signs tell an audience what kind of court the building holds. Family and children's cases come through S-3036, Conciliation Court, with 2 in the book; S-3053, its family counseling waiting room sign; S-3034, Child Custody Evaluations; and S-3033, Department B Child Dependency. Civil business has S-3038, Default Judgment Screening, and the S-3080 directory for a Superior Court Civil Division. S-3039 reads Justice Of The Peace, and S-3078, a Judicial Review Committee hearing room in closed session, stands 21 inches tall.

S-3035 Superior Court and S-3036 at 17 inches wide, and S-3037 Court Staff Only and S-3038 at 10, share one format in the book, blue/white plastic 2½ inches tall, and between them they name the court, a department and the staff door.

Counsel table, witness and juror placards

At counsel table the book has S-3040, Appellant, black/white at 15 by 3 inches, and S-3041, Plaintiff, woodgrain/white at 10 by 2, so the two differ in color and size, and EC's book has no Defendant or Respondent placard and no judge's nameplate. S-3042 In Session, S-3045 Witnesses Excluded and the two reminders to counsel, S-3046 and S-3052, are woodgrain/white like Plaintiff.

The juror boards filed here come in two shapes, both brown/white plastic with a list the book does not give: S-3058, Jurors Please State, 20 inches wide by 18 tall, and S-3066, Jurors: Please State, 13½ wide by 20 tall. S-3073, in black/white plastic, carries item 6 alone, Prior Jury Experience A. Civil B. Criminal (Includes Traffic) C. None, and the book cuts it off before its size. No other numbered item from that questionnaire is a line of its own anywhere in EC's book, and the book does not say whether the lists on S-3058 and S-3066 include it.

Row, attorney and staff-only signs

Three signs filed here claim gallery rows: S-3084, First Row For Police Officers And Attorneys Only; S-3085, This Row For Attorneys Only; and S-3077, Row For Interpreter Service, with a Spanish line that spells Englais as the book has it. For the doors, S-1093 Lawyers Only and S-3044 Attorneys Only are both 18 inches wide, the first in engraved plastic with no count in the book, and S-3061 restricts entry to jurors and authorized personnel.

Rules of the courtroom and dress code boards

S-3057, Rules Of The Courtroom, and S-3065, Rules Of The Court Room as the book spells it, are both brown/white plastic, 20 inches wide and listed with 7 rules, at 17 and 13½ inches tall; the rules themselves are not in the book. Of the other lines in this table, S-3069 alone gives a full size, and the book cuts off the rest, most of them partway through their wording.

Pick a dress code or conduct sign from this table by what it bans: S-3048 and S-3092 bar shorts, tank tops, bare feet and sunglasses, S-2952 names muscle shirts and midriff shirts, S-3069 bars hats alone, and S-3054 bars gum chewing, talking, hats, sunglasses and children while court is in session, with more after No Children that the book cuts off. Appropriate Attire Is Required opens both S-3059 and S-3067, and Dress Code Enforced both S-3062 and S-3072; all four stop before their colors and size, so ask the front office for each line's colors and size before treating a pair as a match.

Quiet, phone and no food signs

For a hearing room, S-3094, Please Remain Quiet When Entering Hearing Room, is gray/brown wood at 24 by 18 inches, and S-3091, in gray/brown plastic, cites Civil Code 21 00-34 in its wording. Do Not Enter While Court Is In Session opens both S-3083 and S-3086, and S-3086 and S-3081, the no food or drink sign with a symbol, are the two stock numbers in these tables with 3 in the book.

Phone wording is the period cue, and it comes from the text alone; the book dates none of these signs. Six stock numbers in this table pair pagers with cell phones: S-3062, S-3064, S-3072, S-3083, S-3086 and S-3101; S-3093 names cellular telephones and digital devices; and S-3099 is a no cellular phones symbol with no words.

S-3098, Turn Off Cell Phone in a black plastic frame, gives its width as 9½' with a foot mark beside a 3½ inch height, so confirm that size with the front office. When an order runs to many signs from this page, that frame goes out beside plastic faces, the wood of S-3016 and S-3094 and the plastic/posterboard of S-2201, and the production brings pads to go between them, since EC does not supply expendables.

Screening, weapons and hallway notices

At the screening line, S-2953 says Persons Entering Courthouse Are Subject To Search in English and Spanish, S-3009 tells visitors in Spanish that they need identification, and S-3089 extends the search to packages, briefcases and containers. Of the weapons notices, S-2110 names the Criminal Courts Building, though the book stops before its list of who may bring weapons in, and S-3088, on weapons in a courthouse, has 2 in the book.

In the halls, S-3071 tells bail bondsmen to show proper identification, S-2954 and S-3075 open with the same warning about soliciting business, and S-3090 reads Court Closed in English and El Juzgado Esta Cerrado in Spanish. S-3055, Court Files Are Not To Be Taken Into Lockup, and S-3076, visiting rules for attorneys seeing an inmate, are the courthouse side of a holding area; further bail, booking and sheriff's signs are filed under Jail/Prison Signs.

Color pairs from hallway to courtroom

The color pairs in the tables above show which signs share a color scheme from hallway to courtroom, though the book spells out no font. Brown/white runs through the Jury Room 23 arrows, the S-3068 directional, both rules boards and both juror boards, among other lines; in the placards table, woodgrain/white runs through Plaintiff (S-3041), the 2½ inch In Session strip (S-3042), Witnesses Excluded and the two reminders to counsel, though Appellant (S-3040), the other counsel table placard, is black/white; and blue/white marks the other 2½ inch strips, S-3035 to S-3038, with 2 of S-3036 in the book. The color column in each table shows where the rest fall.