Florida State Courts Extend Coronavirus Outage Into July

Florida’s chief justice extended the state’s jury trial outage for a month while pushing for more remote hearings eight weeks into the coronavirus pandemic.

Chief Justice Charles Canady issued the emergency order Monday based on recommendations from a state court working group examining operations and the spread of COVID-19.

To demonstrate his commitment to getting state courts back on track with precautions, Canady previously scheduled the first remote oral arguments for the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday.

State court trials have been suspended through July 2, the last working day before the Fourth of July holiday weekend. That brings the in-person shutdown to 3.5 months for nonessential court work.

Canady extended several legal deadlines until after the holiday due to “a special hazard” of infection for jurors and court employees, the court said in a statement.

This compares to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to reopen businesses beyond South Florida, the hardest-hit region with almost 60 percent of the state’s 37,000 cases.

The omnibus state order matches the running deadline set for South Florida federal courts, which allow in-person hearings only in emergency cases and after consultation with U.S. District Chief Judge K. Michael Moore.

He conducted a bench trial on Zoom, and other judges have ramped up their video and telephonic hearing schedules.

Both Canady and Moore have left the door open for more extensions. State courts have been operating under emergency orders due to the health crisis since March 13, two days after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic.

While state courts have not issued statistics to measure the impact of the virus on operations, the illness is more than just a hypothetical.

Miami-Dade courts issued an advisory last week saying an infected employee worked on eight floors of the downtown civil courthouse through April 22. People in close contact with the sick workers were notified.

In state courts, the rules vary by case type. In first-degree murder cases, the new state order suspends some requirements for in-person preliminary hearings and a requirement that defendants be automatically released from custody if prosecutors don’t file charges within 40 days.

Even with the precautions limiting personal contact, Canady wants courts to keep running.

“Chief judges are directed to take all necessary steps to facilitate conducting proceedings with the use of technology,” his order said. “Judges and court personnel who can effectively conduct court and judicial branch business from a remote location shall do so.”

Canady suggested more remote bench trials, mediation and even evidentiary motion hearings, which some attorneys have resisted. He also asked the working group to recommend options for keeping remote proceedings after the pandemic is over.

Read the order: 

Read more:

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Take Note: No Federal Jury Trials in South Florida Until Summer