By Carolina Bolado

Law360 (March 20, 2020, 8:52 PM EDT) -- With new orders extending emergency coronavirus protocols for South Florida courts well into April, judges are grappling with their new normal of remote hearings and carefully weighing whether to postpone hearings or try to do as much as possible remotely to prevent a backlog later.

On Friday, Chief U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore extended a pause on jury trials until April 27 in the Southern District of Florida, while a directive from Chief Justice Charles Canady of the Florida Supreme Court added three more weeks to an existing bar on almost all face-to-face proceedings in state courts that now won't be lifted until at least April 17.

"I do think we are concerned that what is not getting done now is going to back up and create some congestion when we get back to normal, and we are aware of that," Judge Moore said.

The latest extension came after discussion Friday with the U.S. Marshals Service, the clerk of the court, the chief probation officer and other parties involved in the court's operations, according to Judge Moore, who said a one-month extension made the most sense for now.

"We agreed to the one month because we thought that that struck the right balance of giving people more guidance in terms of when they would have to next be prepared for trial at the earliest," Judge Moore said. "We're aware other courts have gone as far out as June. We didn't think that was necessary. It may be a hope on our part to try to return to normalcy sooner rather than later."

Some judges, like U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola Jr., have cleared their schedules of civil hearings and are holding only criminal hearings in carefully disinfected courtrooms, where Judge Scola said it's easy to maintain "social distancing" to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

"I have the defendants sitting around the corner from the lawyer," Judge Scola said. "If they have to have a conversation, we'll all leave the courtroom so they can talk."

He said he's also using the time to tackle any pending items he needs to address.

U.S. District Judge Roy Altman is taking a different approach to managing his dockets, postponing all criminal hearings for now and holding civil hearings over the phone.

"It's a little strange at first," Judge Altman said. "Sometimes it can be difficult to stop people from talking over each other."

The suspension of visits to inmates in federal prisons has complicated criminal cases by making it more difficult for incarcerated defendants to communicate with their attorneys, he said.

"I don't think it's fair to have criminal hearings for people who are detained because lawyers can't meet with them," Judge Altman said.

The judges are trying to keep the courts up and running while the rest of the region, which has seen coronavirus hot spots emerge in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, shuts down all non-essential businesses to prevent further spread.

"We're functioning," Chief Judge Jack Tuter of the 17th Judicial Circuit Court in Broward County said. "We're trying to do as much as we can do."

While the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County has shifted to only "mission-critical" operations, Judge Tuter said judges in Broward County are still holding civil hearings, just doing so remotely in order to keep the dockets moving and prevent a backlog later on. So far, telephonic conferences have sufficed, but courts are working to set up videoconferencing with Zoom in anticipation of an extended closure, according to Judge Tuter.

For South Florida judges, the emergency measures feel somewhat familiar, as many have dealt with similar partial court shutdowns for hurricanes. Each court has plans in place to conduct essential court functions remotely while the courts are closed during and after hurricanes. But unlike in the aftermath of a storm, all parties in the current pandemic emergency still have electricity and internet, which means they can accomplish much more.

"There are some lessons we've learned from hurricanes when we had to shut down, but it's not really quite the same, because in a hurricane situation, lawyers didn't have internet and some didn't have working phones," Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurel Isicoff said. "We couldn't conduct court at all. But because we have the electronics, we have the facilities."

So far, all bankruptcy judges in the Southern District of Florida are working from home and conducting hearings using CourtCall or CourtSolutions, the two services they typically use for telephone court appearances. But Judge Isicoff said that as the shutdown continues, the court will explore videoconferencing capabilities.

"As long as we have internet, we'll be fine," Judge Isicoff said.

The judges and court officers are meeting — remotely of course — periodically to update their plans, which Judge Moore says are changing by the day. As he looks ahead, school closures will play some role in the full reopening of the courts, as closed schools could make childcare difficult for potential jurors. He'll continue the emergency procedures as long as necessary, he said.

"I don't know if it's a choice that we have," Judge Moore said. "It's going to have to go on for as long as the threat of the virus remains. It's not something we have a say in."

--Editing by Breda Lund and Kelly Duncan.

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