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Law360 (June 17, 2020, 8:28 PM EDT) -- Florida's individual counties or trial court circuits will have a say in determining when to resume in-person jury trials under Chief Justice Charles Canady's latest round of updates to guidelines for the state's courts on navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a new administrative order — one of two the chief justice issued late Tuesday along with an updated "best practices" memorandum — local chief judges will be able to lift the current suspension of jury trials in courts they supervise 30 days after determining that the trial court circuit or a county within the circuit has entered Phase 2 of a four-phase reopening process announced last month.
Justice Canady's second order provided more specific benchmarks that must be met for state courts to move into Phase 2, which would authorize limited in-person contact and court proceedings with protective measures.
They include there being no confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in the court facility within a 14-day period or deep cleaning and self-quarantining if cases have occurred; the lifting of local and state restrictions on movement or stay-at-home orders; improving COVID-19 health conditions in the community over a 14-day period; having adequate testing programs in place and COVID-19 or antibody tests available; and consultation with other building occupants and justice system partners, such as the clerk of court, state attorney, public defenders, local bar and law enforcement.
The order says what constitutes improving COVID-19 health conditions "may vary by community," but lists several possible factors, including the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and related deaths relative to the local population density; a downward trajectory of positive tests as a percent of total tests; the size of particularly vulnerable populations; and the availability of medical facilities, including emergency and intensive care capacity.
When he issued his last update June 8, Justice Canady said that based on new information from his Workgroup on the Continuity of Court Operations and Proceedings During and After COVID-19 and "evolving medical guidance," it had become apparent that reevaluation and clarification of the benchmarks was needed.
The Supreme Court said the new orders and memorandum adopted recommendations from the COVID-19 workgroup. According to the latest orders, the workgroup is currently developing benchmarks for the transition from Phase 2 to Phase 3, which is described as in-person contact being more broadly authorized in the state courts with more relaxed protective measures. Phase 4 will be when COVID-19 no longer presents a significant risk to public health and safety in the state courts.
The COVID-19 workgroup, which was established in an April 21 order, is also tasked with recommending which pandemic-related guidelines should be continued after the pandemic ends, according to the Supreme Court.
The order also said court reopening protocols and practices will be guided by recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as guidance from the Florida Department of Health and local and county health officials and medical professionals.
The new guidelines on in-person jury trials replace a statewide suspension of jury trials that Justice Canady had recently extended until July 17. Under the new guidelines, proceedings for a statewide grand jury investigating school violence will remain suspended until July 26 for now.
The new "best practices" memorandum, which replaces one originally issued May 11, includes new safety guidelines for jury management during the pandemic, recommendations on the priority for resuming civil and criminal jury trials once they start again and guidelines for managing evidence in remote pretrial hearings in criminal cases and other recommendations for remote hearings.
Justice Canady issued his initial order on pandemic-related court restrictions on March 13. It represented the first time a limit on face-to-face proceedings was ordered in Florida since 1972, when the state's court system was unified.
In his earlier orders, Justice Canady had directed all circuit and county courts to fulfill their responsibility to conduct proceedings critical to the current state of emergency or the public health emergency but told each circuit's chief judge to cancel or postpone any nonessential proceedings unless they could be conducted remotely.
The state Supreme Court has heard oral arguments with all of its justices and attorneys in separate locations for the first time in history because of the pandemic.
The state has been gradually lifting restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, the number of known COVID-19 cases in Florida was 82,719, including nonresidents, and there had been 3,018 virus-related deaths, according to the Florida Department of Health. The state reported an increase of 2,610 new cases in the past day, continuing a recent spike in cases that has included several new single-day records.
--Editing by Stephen Berg.
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