What does reopening look like for local courts as Illinois emerges from COVID-19?
Criminal and civil proceedings in southwestern Illinois will begin to look a bit different soon, with the announcement that the 20th Judicial Circuit Court will reopen with teleconferencing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The court, which encompasses St. Clair, Monroe, Randolph, Perry and Washington counties, halted most non-emergency hearings on March 23, after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s executive stay-at-home order was put in place.
On May 20, Chief Judge Andrew Gleeson announced that civil proceedings would begin to reopen via virtual conferences and remote access hearings.
“We have tested various platforms for both meetings and hearings and believe we are now ready to open our justice system back up, albeit mostly remotely,” Gleeson said in the announcement. “So far the response from attorneys has been positive.”
Since the executive order was enacted, both criminal and civil cases have piled up in St. Clair County Court, but not to an unmanageable amount, Gleeson said last week.
“While we do have a backlog, it’s not monumental or unworkable,” he said. “Obviously we have things in the pipeline that need to get addressed and dealt with.”
Gleeson said that the court will prioritize reopening criminal felony proceedings, as there are constitutional obligations and duties in those courtrooms, such as a right to a speedy trial.
Beginning June 1, the courtrooms for Judges Robert Haida, Zina Cruse and John O’Gara will proceed via Zoom. During those Zoom meetings, which are set at designated times for each judge, all attorneys are expected to join.
If litigants are required to be present at hearings, Gleeson said that the court will have to accommodate for that, but basic perfunctory motions and status conferences will proceed with just the lawyers present.
For traffic and misdemeanor courts, only first appearances will be allowed in person and there will be no trials. To follow social distancing guidelines, the dockets will have staggered start times.
The question of jury trials, however, is still a tricky one that does not yet have a solution. The Illinois Supreme Court suspended deadlines for criminal jury trials due to the inability to gather, a decision that last Thursday was extended to Aug. 3.
“We are still working on a jury trial plan,” Gleeson said. “We have various plans to spread jurors out in courtrooms and to comply with social distancing, but there are still some wrinkles to work out before that goes into place.”
All civil jury trials that were scheduled for 2020 have been vacated and will be rescheduled on a case-by-case basis.
The design of the St. Clair County Courthouse is not ideal for social distancing, Gleeson said, noting that the pandemic has made him realize truly how many people are usually present in the building every day.
“In the courthouse, we have limitations in terms of how to get people in and out of building,” he said. “It starts with employees, then you begin to talk about lawyers and parties inside ... It’s just not workable at this point with what we know about COVID-19. You can’t have people on top of each other.”
Limiting the number of people in the courthouse
When the courthouse does reopen, only employees and people necessary to proceedings such as attorneys and defendants will be allowed inside. Masks will be required, no purses or backpacks will be permitted and people have been asked to not wear too much metal when they come, since lines at metal detectors slow down entry to the courthouse.
Decals indicating safe social distances have been placed in courtrooms, seats have marked for safe social distances, germ shields have been installed in some courtrooms and hand sanitizer has been placed throughout.
As for the future, Gleeson said he could see the use of teleconferencing in the court system increasing.
“The pandemic has forced our hand with respect to technology, but when I look at it — and I’m being realistic in trying to have some visibility into the future — we’re gonna be utilizing this more and more, so we might as well get on board now,” he said.
The teleconferencing comes with its own set of pros and cons, as does any new technology, Gleeson said. The advantages of remote access and convenience must strike a balance with the disadvantages of not being able to personally observe people and their body language while they’re in the courtroom.
Navigating the process of reopening the courts has been a laborious task for those involved in decision making, Gleeson said, as they try to make operations “at least manageable” for people to have access to courts and have their grievances heard.
“We all have to be patient with each other,” he said. “We’re changing whole dynamics of how courtrooms operate, so it’s going to be a learning process for all of us to a certain degree.”
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 11:18 AM.
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