For Alexander Funk, a criminal defense attorney based in Dover who practices across Delaware, COVID-19 came with a sudden drop in work last spring, followed by court closures standing in the way of resolving most cases quickly.

With Delaware’s courts gradually reopening in recent months and jury trials now underway for the first time in well over a year, the Curley, Dodge, & Funk partner said he’s hopeful criminal cases will progress more quickly, but that chipping away at the backlog will require him to operate in a way that would have been hard to imagine prior to 2020.