By Chris Villani

Law360 (May 14, 2020, 4:41 PM EDT) -- The coronavirus pandemic will likely keep Massachusetts courthouses closed through June before reopening slowly over the summer, with an eye toward resuming jury trials in September, the state's top justices wrote in a letter to the bar Thursday.

In the letter, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants, Appeals Court Chief Justice Mark V. Green and Trial Courts Chief Justice Paula M. Carey outlined a "path forward" for the state courts, including a heavy reliance on virtual hearings, as Massachusetts prepares to loosen some restrictions prompted by COVID-19.

The letter outlines tentative plans, stressing that reopening is still largely a work in progress and will be based on direction from the governor as well as the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the state. Massachusetts' stay-at-home advisory is set to expire May 18 and some businesses may open after that date. 

"We anticipate that our courthouses will likely remain physically closed in June, but that the number and range of non-emergency matters adjudicated virtually in the Trial Court will continue to grow, such that the Trial Court will endeavor to handle most matters that do not require an in person court appearance," the justices wrote.

The courts will likely open over the summer, the letter states. But when they do, they will open slowly and in stages for matters that must be heard in person and with social distancing practices in place.

"The days when our Trial Court welcomed approximately 40,000 persons a day into our courthouses are over, at least for the duration of the pandemic," the justices wrote.

Jury trials could resume in September if students are back in school.

"But the challenges of conducting jury trials with social distancing during a pandemic are formidable, and will require us to reimagine how juries are empaneled, where they will sit during trial, and where they will deliberate so that jurors can both be safe and feel safe," the justices wrote. "We are hard at work trying to address those challenges, and it is premature to predict now what it will look like."

The courts will continue to rely on virtual hearings whenever possible. The justices noted they are considering whether to end the tolling of certain court deadlines in June so that matters can be freed from "litigation limbo" and move forward, as courts are increasingly able to handle them virtually.

Even before the pandemic, the justices said they realized the state trial courts, which many thought were ill-equipped to handle matters virtually, would need to step up those capabilities in order to "resolve an increasing number and range of matters without burdening attorneys, litigants, and witnesses with the need to come to a courthouse."

"We recognize that the road we have traveled together in the last few months has often been rocky and at times riddled with unexpected potholes," the justices wrote. "But we also recognize that, if one had asked in February of this year whether we would be able in two months to transform our court system from one that almost invariably required in-person appearance to one that was almost invariably virtual, few would have imagined that it was possible or that we would be as far along as we are."

The justices thanked their judges, clerks, IT professionals, probation staff and other court employees for their work during the crisis.

"In the coming months, we will need all of that, and more," the justices wrote, "because as challenging as it has been to close our courthouses, it will be even more challenging to reopen them."

--Editing by Michael Watanabe.

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