Nearly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, civil courts across the country have shown the resolve to adapt the mechanisms of justice to a new reality. While those wheels have sometimes turned slowly, ingenuity and the ability to pivot kept them turning despite the roadblocks that emerged during these trying times. Many have adjusted admirably to handling most matters online and remotely that were once in-person.

However, a civil justice crisis still looms. Federal and state courts that were already underfunded, overworked, and faced unfilled vacancies before the pandemic now face additional judicial vacancies and layoffs of judicial personnel, budget shortfalls and lengthy courthouse shutdowns because of the still ongoing pandemic. Requirements that courts constitutionally prioritize criminal cases only exacerbate this situation for civil litigants. And, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to and is the subject of a tsunami of new criminal and civil litigation.