Court is back in session, but Zoom remains

Attorney Maribel Cruz split her time last week between in-person and electronic proceedings in Bexar County’s presiding court, a convenient hybrid in a judiciary starting to emerge from pandemic restrictions.

As a mother of two children, she found the courts’ embrace of technology allowed her to take care of both her needs at home and run her family law practice. It also works out better for the people she represents.

“I can go anywhere and do it,” Cruz, 48, said of court proceedings during a break in Thursday’s hearings — in person this time — at the Bexar County Courthouse. “Frankly, it is better for clients, too.”

But Hector Garza, who has his own law practice and shares office space with Cruz, never really embraced Zoom videoconferencing in the abrupt switch forced by the pandemic two years ago.

“I have been foaming at the mouth for this day,” Garza, 54, said Friday about the return to actual courtrooms, which started last week in Bexar County. “I can’t wait to get back in person.”

COVID-19 slammed the brakes on in-person trials for 13 months, causing a backlog that at its height was about 50,000 cases. In the second half of 2021, a raft of plea bargains and some limited and brief trial activity reduced that number to about 30,000.

At the end of the year, state District Judge Ron Rangel suspended jury service for the first two weeks of January because of an omicron variant-fueled surge in COVID-19 cases. It was one of his last orders as administrative judge for the district courts.

Then in late January, Rangel’s successor, state District Judge Rosie Alvarado, suspended jury service until March 1, and extended the pause to March 11.

But the civil courts had experience with teleconferencing at the height of the pandemic and Alvarado implemented a plan in February encouraging them to hold remote and hybrid nonjury hearings. Participants who choose to appear in person were told to be prepared to introduce documents