Court Operations
- Establishing protocols and developing guidelines to help court management respond and adapt court operations to COVID-19-related events, including issues related to employees, the public, jurors and support
- Working with our justice partners to identify ways to reduce the need for in-person appearances while performing imperative functions and respecting litigants’ due process
- Planning underway to reduce courthouse visits with the use of expanded video and telephonic appearances and other measures designed to protect constitutional rights while reducing the need for attorneys, defendants, clients and others to appear in
- Working with Sheriff’s Command staff to prepare in the event there are concerns related to the jails or
Minimizing Exposure
- Expanded custodial cleaning of courthouse high-traffic areas and retained vendor to decontaminate confirmed exposures
- Installing freestanding automatic sanitizer dispensers and distributing hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes to each courthouse.
- Advised vendors, contractors, independent courtroom support personnel and volunteers about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines and asked that they stay away from the Court if they are
- Canceled use of courthouse by third parties for mock trials, tours and delegation Canceled judicial and community outreach events.
Monitoring, Notifying & Sharing COVID-19 Developments
- Posting of court notification instructions for attorneys, jurors or prospective jurors, parties or witnesses who are feeling ill on Court’s
- Assembled a team of judicial officers and senior staff to monitor communications from the CDC, the County Department of Public Health (DPH), and the County Office of Emergency Management (EM) to update information as it becomes available.
Looking Ahead
- Timely dissemination of public and attorney notices on COVID-19-related impacts to court operations via the Court’s website (https://www.lacourt.org/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/LASuperiorCourt) and
- Court will continue to evaluate the need to hold, postpone or reconfigure regularly scheduled judicial officers and/or staff events as well as special
