Weather forces some courts to redo dockets or go virtual

Winter weather this week has played havoc not only with school and work schedules but with the operations of federal and state courts in Little Rock and elsewhere, forcing them to juggle hearings and otherwise deal with the frigid temperatures and hazardous roads.

U.S. District Court Clerk Tammy Downs said Wednesday that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas had initially scheduled a busy court docket for Tuesday and Wednesday this week at all three courthouses — Little Rock, Helena-West Helena and Jonesboro — with a heavy hearing schedule and several jury trials scheduled to take place. Due to the weather, Downs said, all jury trials and hearings that were on the calendar for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week had to be rescheduled to a later date.

Downs said on Wednesday that the Richard Sheppard Arnold Federal Courthouse in Little Rock is scheduled to open today at 10 a.m.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Arkansas’ eastern and western districts, in Little Rock and Fayetteville, is scheduled to resume normal operations at both locations at 10 a.m. today.

Eddie Towe, Chief U.S. Probation and Pre-trial Services officer for Arkansas’ eastern district, said the probation office has continued to operate normally with probation officers available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week regardless of the status of the federal building. Towe said during the winter weather interruption, probation officers remained available to cover court hearings and to conduct home or community visits with clients as needed and have been able to work remotely via government-issued laptop computers.

Towe said all of the office’s clients were notified that the probation office in Little Rock was closed through the use of an electronic notification system and through the probation office’s public website. Both the Little Rock and Jonesboro U.S. Probation offices are scheduled to open at 10 a.m. today.

The Pulaski County courthouse has also been closed this week due to the icy conditions. The shutdown has not substantially affected court operations, according to Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge Karen Whatley.

The circuit’s administrative judge, Whatley said Wednesday that the 17 judges for the Little Rock-based region that covers Perry and Pulaski counties started planning for the weather several days before the arctic temperatures arrived last weekend.

They were able to reschedule some cases before the freezing blast arrived, then moved to conducting virtual hearings over the internet this week for other cases, she said.

Whatley said she expects the courthouse to reopen today. She said she’ll have actual court if that happens; otherwise, she’ll resume virtual proceedings. However, some judges have planned to continue with virtual court, Whatley said.