Courts around the Philly region are inching toward a busier — and more digital — new normal

Courts across the Philadelphia region, which have been largely shut down since the coronavirus took hold in March, are planning to resume varying levels of activity starting in June.

Many of the proceedings will be aided by phone or videoconferencing — a relative leap forward for institutions often slow to embrace new technologies. Proceedings in Pennsylvania had previously been barred from being recorded on audio or video, but that dam was at least partially breached this week when the state Supreme Court, for the first time in its 298-year history, held remote oral arguments streamed on YouTube.

In coming weeks, court officials in Philadelphia aim to start holding preliminary hearings via videoconference, Common Pleas Court President Judge Idee C. Fox said in an interview — a key step in allowing criminal cases to begin to move through the system again.

Chester County plans toresume nearly all normal court operations beginning on June 2, said Patricia L. Norwood-Foden, the county’s district court administrator.

And in two New Jersey counties — Mercer and Bergen — a pilot program to hold remote grand jury proceedings could be launched as early as next week, according to court officials.

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The relative steps forward will help unclog a backlog of cases after a two-month slowdown. Court officials in several counties declined to quantify the scale of the issue; Fox said thinking about the numbers gave her “nightmares.”

William J. Brennan, a Philadelphia defense attorney, said resuming court functions was important for all citizens, not only those involved in criminal cases or civil litigation.

The legal system is designed to resolve a host of contentious issues and disputes. The longer the system remains shut down, he said, “you have no machine to deal with those issues, thereby setting the entire societal balance off-kilter.”

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Even as the wheels of justice churn with more speed, there will be one notable exception: Jury trials remain suspended in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and no one is certain when it might be safe to gather 12 strangers in a courtroom alongside lawyers, defendants, sheriffs, a judge, and court staffers.

Fox said court administrators across the state have been discussing ideas as unusual as staging jury selection in gymnasiums.

Important as they are, jury trials represent a fraction of court business. Here’s how some counties in the region are planning to move forward on other aspects of their operations.

Fox said the city’s court system was hoping to use June as a “test period" for getting back up to speed.

In criminal court, for example, lawyers and judges will begin holding hearings to take stock of pending cases and determine how to move them toward resolution. Lawyers will be allowed to appear in person or remotely, Fox said.

Besides getting cases moving, the goal is to provide a preview of what issues might arise as cases and people resume flowing though the state’s busiest criminal courthouse — such as how to limit elevator capacity, or how to design schedules that can allow for proper distancing within a courtroom.

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Preliminary hearings — a key proceeding at which prosecutors must persuade a judge there is enough evidence for a case to move forward — are expected be held by Zoom starting in June, Fox said.

District Attorney Larry Krasner said his office was hopeful about that step, and had helped stage a mock preliminary hearing via Zoom this week.

Earlier this month, the courts held some emergency hearings by Zoom as part of an effort to reduce the city’s jail population.

In Chester County, “all functions” will resume on June 2, according to an order issued May 13, though jury trials will be suspended until at least August.

Norwood-Foden, the administrator, said anyone entering a courtroom must have their temperature taken and wear a mask, and judges have been encouraged to use technology to limit the people who need to appear in person.

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Some degree of normal operations will also be returning in June to Montgomery and Bucks Counties, according to orders posted online. Delaware County’s emergency order suspending most court proceedings also ends on June 1.

Precautions will be taken for anyone entering courthouses.

Bucks County, for example, has established a “quarantine room,” where anyone with an illness will be taken if they exhibit symptoms inside a courtroom. The courtroom will then be decontaminated.

New Jersey began hosting virtual sessions beginning in mid-March for detention, plea, and sentencing hearings in criminal cases in Superior Court. A suspension on virtual hearings for Municipal Court cases, which deal with minor criminal offenses and other matters, was lifted in late April.

The program to hold remote grand juries has been designed to ensure that Zoom hearings are held securely and protect grand jury secrecy, according to court officials.

“We made a decision early on that the court system needed to function not just for emergencies but for as many proceedings as possible," Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said in a statement Wednesday. “Since March 16, more than 26,000 court events have been held remotely in New Jersey involving more than 217,000 participants.”