Smaller jury pools, remote proceedings, video-streamed hearings and restrictions on visitors will be part of the new normal.
Southern California courthouses whose operations were drastically curtailed in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic are gearing up for a reawakening, but justice will look much different as judges work to balance health concerns and constitutional rights.
Smaller jury pools, remote proceedings, video-streamed hearings and few court visitors will mark the new courthouse reality, as the days of bustling hallways and elevators packed with attorneys, jurors, witnesses, law enforcement officials and victims fade away for the foreseeable future.
In the face of stay-at-home orders, local courts have halted ongoing jury trials, extended deadlines for pending criminal trials, halted progress on most civil cases and largely focused on emergency and time-sensitive hearings. For those hearings, the courts — traditionally resistant to change — have been forced to rely on technology for social distancing.
“What’s happened is the courts have been forced to do something they otherwise would not have done,” said Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge and current executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute. “It’s not as bad as we thought it would be.”
Within each local Superior Court system, the various stakeholders — including judicial officials, prosecutors and public defenders — are busy crafting their plans for reopening.
Some are expected to move faster than others, with the Orange County Superior Court announcing a “soft reopening” for this week, including resuming criminal trials put on pause by the earlier closure. Courthouses in Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire are expected to begin ramping up their operations by mid-June. All are expecting a gradual return of services.
Awaiting them will be a backlog of cases built up during the closures, though prosecutors are hoping to draw down some of that workload by settling criminal cases before they go to trial.
