MASSACHUSETTS COURTHOUSES are tentatively planning to start reopening for in-person proceedings in phases at some point this summer with jury trials set to resume in September if schools reopen, according to a letter sent to members of the bar by the leaders of the state court system.
The judges — Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants, Appeals Court Chief Justice Mark Green, and Trial Court Chief Justice Paula Carey – said that courthouses will likely remain closed physically through the end of June. But the judges said the number of non-emergency matters adjudicated virtually will keep growing and they indicated they are considering lifting the hold on many matters in “litigation limbo” sometime during the month.
The justices said the days when the Trial Court would welcome 40,000 persons a day into courthouses are over, at least for the duration of the pandemic. They indicated COVID-19 has changed the court system, in some ways for good. They said they had long planned that civil courts would need to start resolving legal matters without requiring all the participants to come to courthouses.
“Before the pandemic, we expected that it would take years to make substantial progress in this regard; with the pandemic, we have made substantial progress in just a few months. Therefore, even when this pandemic is behind us, we do not believe we will or should go back to doing things as we did in February,” said the letter from.
The three judges said jury trials will present some major challenges given the need for social distancing. Jury trials “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,” wrote the justices.
Trial courts closed to the public on March 15 in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus, and to be in accordance with Gov. Charlie Baker’s March 15 declaration limiting gatherings of more than 25 people.
Court business has continued, with clerks accepting documents, scheduling and facilitating virtual hearings, and judges issuing orders.
The plans for the future are tentative and remain a work in progress, said the judges, and depend on state data of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Massachusetts, along with any orders by Baker.
On May 4, the Trial Court transitioned from mostly focusing on emergencies to hearing an increased number of non-emergency matters.
