Efforts by Florida judicial officials to reopen court operations safely in the wake of the coronavirus remain a work in progress as the Florida chief justice granted more authority to local judges to determine when in-person jury trials can resume.
Chief Justice Charles Canady updated the state courts’ reopening policies in two orders issued on June 16. One updated order allows local circuits to restart jury trial proceedings when certain criteria are met, replacing an earlier order suspending jury trials around Florida until July 17 at the earliest.
“Under the order, local chief judges now can remove the suspension of jury trials locally 30 days after determining that the trial-court circuit or a county within the circuit has transitioned to Phase 2,” a news release on the Supreme Court’s website states.
Phase 2 refers to the step in the reopening process when limited in-person functions are authorized at courthouses.
Paul Flemming, the spokesman for the Office of State Courts Administrator (OSCA), said that some courthouses are far enough along on meeting reopening rules that it’s possible for them to begin restarting in-person jury trials by the first half of July. But that’s far from certain, Fleming said, due to circumstances courts can’t control, such as a future virus spike or a court employee testing positive for COVID-19.
“There are a lot of players here and a lot of moving parts,” Flemming told the Florida Record. “Jurisdictions are trying to do this in a thoughtful and workable way.”
Because local coronavirus conditions help to determine how courthouses go about the reopening process, local chief judges will have a large degree of discretion, he said.
“This puts a lot more flexibility into the hands of the chief judge,” Flemming said.
In another recent order, Canady pushed back a deadline for circuit courts taking part in the development of procedures for conducting civil trials remotely from July 13 to Oct. 12. Even so, creating an online civil trial template remains a priority for the court system, according to Flemming.
“We’re cognizant of jury trials that are backing up,’ he said. “... Figuring out how to do so is not an easy thing.”
And a new “best practices” memorandum calls on the group responsible for developing rules for conducting civil trials remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other court operations, to continue its work through the end of the year. Originally, the Workgroup on the Continuity of Court Operations and Proceedings was only set up to function through June 30.
The workgroup has accomplished a remarkable amount of work in recent months, according to Flemming, and acute problems were addressed. But the panel will need more time to deal with ongoing issues during the coronavirus period, he said.
“Keeping the workgroup intact seemed like the right thing to do,” Flemming said.