Courts to resume most operations Monday
On most days when Pittsburgh’s Municipal Court is in session, the courtrooms are jam-packed with people awaiting their preliminary hearings before a local magistrate judge.
The same can be said of the third and fifth floors of the Allegheny County Courthouse when criminal court is in session. Dozens of defendants, victims, family members, police officers and attorneys waiting in hallways; crammed into courtroom galleries; stuffed tight into jury boxes.
But when court operations resume on Monday — following the declaration of a judicial emergency in mid-March because of the COVID-19 pandemic — it will look a lot different.
Cases at City Court and in Common Pleas Court will be staggered throughout the day so there is no loitering in the hallways, tape lines will be placed on the courtroom floors to ensure parties stay far enough away from each other, and Plexiglas partitions will separate judges and witnesses from court reporters and clerks.
A 28-page order issued by court administration on Thursday, which technically extends the emergency declaration in Allegheny County through Aug. 31, provides details for attorneys and the public as the courts start to return to business.
“The goal of the order is to drive down the number of people in the courthouse on any given day,” said Criminal Division Administrative Judge Jill E. Rangos.
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ended the statewide judicial emergency, which was initially declared on March 16 and extended several times.
It now expires on June 1 and allows the president judge in each district to address individual needs and concerns — including whether any additional emergency declarations must be made.
When jury trials resume will be up to each individual district, as well.
In Allegheny County, neither civil nor criminal jury trials will resume for the foreseeable future. But there will be pleas; nonjury trials; sentencings; probation violations and motions hearings. Many of those hearings will be conducted through video-conferencing where possible.
Court administration has also made it easier for attorneys to submit postponements and other paperwork online — again limiting trips to the courthouse.
For prosecutors, they will continue to alternate between working in the district attorney’s office and home, said spokesman Mike Manko.
New laptops have been purchased and others have been upgraded, and prosecutors are using Microsoft Teams to meet with victims, witnesses and law enforcement.
“While the Allegheny County Courthouse is a beautiful public building, it does present some challenges in continuing to work with regards to the pandemic due to its age and small confines,” he said.
In some units of the DA’s office, where four or more attorneys are packed tight into very small offices, that will change. The prosecutors will be spread out — at their desks — or work remotely in currently unused space in the building, Mr. Manko said.
Plexiglas partitions have also been installed in the DA’s office where necessary; temperatures will be taken for employees and masks are being provided to staff.
Under state guidelines, no courtroom will have more than 25 people, and Judge Rangos said, in many cases, there will be even fewer than that.
“Every courtroom has been measured and determined how many people can fit in each one,” Judge Rangos said. “Each room, based on its configuration, will have unique adaptations.”
Chairs in the galleries have been blocked off to ensure the proper social distance, and tape lines on the floors will prevent attorneys from piling up in front of the courtroom minute clerk to discuss cases.
There will also be stanchions and velvet ropes.
“We’re really encouraging people to talk to the parties in their case — who really needs to be there?” Judge Rangos said.
Instead of prosecutors and defense attorneys meeting in the hallway to hash out plea deals or discuss discovery, they are now being told they should conduct that same work through case status conferences by phone or video.
In addition, anyone entering any court facility will be required to wear a mask, said Chief Deputy Sheriff Kevin Kraus.
That includes judges, Judge Rangos said. Even though, technically, the judges on the bench would be far enough away from the others in the courtroom that a mask might not be necessary, they will wear one anyway.
“The judges are looked at as the focal point and leader in the room,” she said. “If they’re not wearing a mask, it’s a slippery slope.”
Early on in the reopening process, inmates from the county jail will not be transported to the courthouse for cases and instead will continue to use video teleconferencing from the jail for their hearings.
“The jail has really stepped up efforts to get new equipment and get people trained for video,” Judge Rangos said.
Every courtroom will now have video teleconferencing equipment, she said.
For the past several weeks, the sheriff’s office has been working with about 50% of its staff in the office, with the rest remaining at home. On Monday, Chief Kraus said, it will transition back to full strength.
Among the priorities for the sheriff’s office will be enforcing the rules relative to social distancing and wearing masks. If any visitor to the courthouse doesn’t follow them, Chief Kraus said, they will be escorted from the building.
At City Court, said deputy court administrator Angharad Stock, three courtrooms will be operating with two cases scheduled every 15 minutes. For those who arrive early, she continued, they may be asked to wait outside, and family and friends may not be admitted to a proceeding if the room is too full.
“We won’t have the mass amount of people scheduled at each one,” Ms. Stock said.
All jailed defendants will appear via video, and the courts are working to try to have officers testify via video, as well, she said.
At the City Court facility on First Avenue, all participants will be asked to enter at the front of the building, but everyone will exit through the rear, Ms. Stock said. Employees will use a separate entrance.
Other changes in the magistrate courts include installing Plexiglas shields at the bench and removing or blocking off chairs in the galleries. For local district judges scattered throughout Allegheny County, defendants may be asked to check in and then wait in their vehicles until their case is called, Ms. Stock said.
All defendants who have magistrate court hearings scheduled have already been given the updated, staggered start times, she said, as well as an information sheet that provides the new rules. To check a start time, defendants can go to: https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/MDJ.aspx
In both the family and civil courts divisions, it is expected most work will continue to be done by phone or video conference, according to the court order.
“So much is changing and so dramatically, there are going to be glitches,” Judge Rangos said. “You just have to expect that.
“We’re working very hard to make sure we’re able to keep everyone safe and protect their constitutional rights in dynamic circumstances.”
Most court services in several of the counties surrounding Allegheny, including civil, family and criminal court, will resume normal practices on June 1. Yet many have already begun reopening.
In Beaver County, for example, orders limiting entry into courthouses were vacated as of May 22. In-person civil motions court resumed in Butler County on May 18 and in Westmoreland County on May 15.
Others, like those in Washington County, are being slightly more cautious. Washington County President Judge Katherine B. Emery extended the judicial emergency in the county until May 29, limiting entry in court facilities to essential personnel until June 1.
Washington courthouses will also require all who enter to wear face masks and may ask some to wear gloves on a case-by-case basis.
Court administrators in Butler, Beaver and Westmoreland likewise said CDC-recommended safety precautions and social distancing will also take priority. These courts strongly recommend face masks in their premises, though they don’t require them, and will stagger hearings so not as many people are waiting in one area.
Restarting jury trials in these counties is still up in the air, however. Court administrators said they’re unsure when jury trials will continue, with officials in Butler saying it might not even be until sometime in the fall, but all say they are taking safety into consideration as they make their decisions.
“The safety of the jurors is the most important thing we’re considering. Would they even come to the courthouse right now if we asked them to?” Beaver County Court Administrator Bill Hare said. “So we’re putting our heads together to come up with a solution and start jury trials again as soon as we can.”