Page 8 - Delaware Lawyer - Summer 2021

FEATURE
Need a Bigger Boat
Hon. Jan R. Jurden
We’re Gonna
The Superior Court’s response to COVID-19 and beyond
I think I can safely speak for almost everyone when I say that the past year has felt like a dog year. Actually, two dog years. When my friend Chuck Durante asked me to write an article focused on the administration of justice during and after a global pandemic, I have to admit I was reluctant to revisit the last 14 months at all. But my guilt and our longstanding friendship took over, so here we are. Bear with me as I recount what worked, what didn’t, and what changes may result in the court’s administration of justice in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Let me set the stage. Effective March 23, 2020, all court facilities were closed to the public. So we needed to
figure out how we were going to handle all of our criminal and civil proceedings virtually — and we had to do it fast. Like yesterday.
When the magnitude of that endeav- or hit me, I remembered Jaws and the look on Chief Brody’s face when, having just seen the size of the Great White, he utters the famous line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” That about sums it
up. Word count limitations won’t per- mit me to go into detail, so I am just going to hit the top 3 challenges (out of about 250) that we faced as of March 23, 2020.
Lack of Criminal E-Filing
We had (and still have) no criminal e- filing. On the criminal side, everything is paper. This means that the Criminal Prothonotary staff has to do every- thing by hand — receive documents at the front desk or through the U.S.
6 DELAWARE LAWYER SUMMER 2021