In a dispute over jury selection in the age of COVID-19, New Jersey’s judiciary has been vindicated in a dispute over whether it can be represented by its own lawyer in the courtroom during a trial where its post-pandemic jury selection procedures came under challenge.

In an order made public Tuesday, the Appellate Division found no merit in a challenge to the judiciary’s post-pandemic jury selection process. The panel lifted a stay in State v. Dangcil, the state’s first new jury trial in six months, and sent the case back to Bergen County Superior Court for the trial to resume.