Judicial Branch to reopen more courts, resume five-day schedule.

The state Judicial Branch announced Thursday that it is resuming five-day-a-week operations at its open courthouses on June 15 and is targeting reopening of four additional courthouses on June 29.

The courts have been operating on a reduced schedule at limited locations during the coronavirus pandemic.

Starting the week of June 15, all open courthouse locations will be open Monday through Friday. The hours for the public will be Monday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Starting the week of June 29, the Danbury, Milford, Stamford and Danielson courthouses will reopen to the public. This will bring the number of open courthouses to 17, including the Supreme and Appellate courts, one courthouse in each of 13 Judicial Districts and two juvenile court locations.

Starting the week of July 6, the courts will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Anyone entering a court facility is required to wear a face mask covering their mouth and nose. The number of people may be limited to allow for adequate social distancing in courthouses, courtrooms or lobbies.

Most work within the open court locations will continue to focus on the most pressing matters, such as criminal arraignments for defendants held on bond, domestic violence cases, restraining orders, emergency child custody matters, juvenile detention hearings, and all other emergency matters.

“We continue to plan for increasing expansion of the branch’s physical footprint and all business operations in a way that places personal safety of the public, the bar and employees at the forefront while also balancing the requirement to continue to provide expanded access,” Chief Court Administrator Patrick L. Carroll III said in a statement.

Carroll said business operations have rapidly expanded across all divisions by the use of remote technology. He said in just a few weeks’ time, family court has held over 600 remote status or settlement conferences and disposed of more than 300 divorce cases remotely. Civil court has conducted close to 1,000 remote events and has ruled on more than 7,000 short calendar matters. Juvenile Court is holding remote detention hearings each day.

The branch continues to expand the handling of criminal matters, as well. Judges will begin conducting remote pretrial conferences with attorneys on June 8, with the initial focus on cases involving incarcerated defendants.