Page 10 - Delaware Lawyer - Summer 2021

FEATURE | WE’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT
Cartoon by Hon. Jan R. Jurden, done in the style of her late father, Wilmington News Journal cartoonist Jack Jurden.
our technology needs on a regular ba- sis and make sure that we are utiliz- ing technology to improve access to justice, reduce costs to the litigants, and improve efficiency. At the good suggestion of the Chief Justice, we will be conducting an “after action” review to study and assess what processes can be streamlined and improved through smarter use of technology and what changes we need to make moving for- ward, given the pitfalls that we faced over the last 14 months. In conjunction with the after-action review, we will be meeting with members of the civil and criminal bars to learn, from the Bar’s perspective, what we could have done better during COVID and how we can improve moving forward.
Accommodating Social Distancing
Our ability to try cases and the num- ber of employees we can have in certain workspaces is limited by a six-foot social distancing requirement. This pandemic took us by surprise. The last one was over 100 years ago. But many doubt that the next one will be 100 years from now. We need to plan for an epidemic and a pandemic.
We need to rethink and reconfigure courtrooms, jury rooms and work- spaces. Our courthouses and social dis- tancing do not mix. Under the require- ments of social distancing of six feet, most of our jury courtrooms aren’t large enough to hold jury trials, and none of our jury-deliberation rooms are large enough to hold 12 jurors. (Even with social distancing at three feet, we could not use our jury rooms dur- ing COVID.) With a few exceptions, our workspaces aren’t large enough to maintain six-foot social distancing.
Adhering to social distancing and other COVID restrictions and safety precautions, we outfitted and recon- figured four of our jury courtrooms in New Castle County, one in Kent and
Administrative Office of the Courts and our Judicial Information Center (our tech geniuses) did it, but in what to me resembled an expertly executed military action, we got everything we needed, and in record time.
Luckily, so did our justice partners. DOC quickly installed technology in every one of its Level V correctional in- stitutions throughout the state, which allowed us to conduct remote hearings with incarcerated individuals. This was a huge undertaking on DOC’s part. Probation and Parole acquired laptops and installed cameras in their facilities so that the officers and their proba- tioners could “attend” virtual violation of probation hearings with the Court. The Office of Defense Services (ODS) tech team installed more video phones and upgraded technology to give their lawyers better access to their incarcer- ated clients. It was truly a marvel and an outstanding collaborative effort. In just
a few weeks, we were up and running — remotely handling criminal and civil proceedings.
We are currently evaluating what proceedings we might continue to han- dle virtually after COVID restrictions are lifted and we return to the new nor- mal. For example, on the criminal side, we can save time and expense for the DOC by continuing to handle First Case Reviews virtually (rather than have in-person hearings in court, which re- quire DOC to transport the inmates). On the civil side, we are considering whether we will continue to hold rou- tine motions and pretrial conferences virtually to save lawyers and self-repre- sented litigants the time and expense of traveling to the courthouse.
Given the critical role that technol- ogy played in enabling us to perform our core mission and conduct essential proceedings during the worst months of the pandemic, we intend to reassess
8 DELAWARE LAWYER SUMMER 2021