“I wish the courthouse informed me more”

Excerpt from Avni, a defendant at the Palo Alto Courthouse in summer 2022

Interviewer: […] if you could change the courts, from your experience, what things would you change about the courts?

Avni: …Um, I wish they had informed me of, like, uh…each stage. Like what each stage looks like, and, what kind of things are gonna happen. Um, and also, like, just, like, reduce the time between the stages. So, your trial or whatever, like, um, just to, um…I don't know, [indistinct] to just to like, make the entire process, like, faster. Yeah.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Avni: And like, and, another concern that I had is related to what I said before. Like, I just--I'm pretty lost, like in terms of, like, uh, I don't, like--I don't know what's happening. I-I don't--Yeah, I know my rights, but at the same time, I don't know--I-I wasn't sure what an arraignment was, what is a pretrial, date, what is, uh, what is trial. Like, all of these differences. I wish the courthouse informed me more of that. Yeah.