Courts open next week – here’s what you need to know

Courthouses will open up next week though some restrictions and procedures, including temperature checks, will remain.  File photo courtesy of OCA

By Jacob Kaye

It’s been over a year but courts in Queens, and across the state, will open up to near full capacity next week. 

On May 24 Queens courts will once again welcome full courthouse staff, including judges, non-judicial employees and court officers. Attorneys, witnesses, jurors, law enforcement officers, defendants and spectators will also be able to return, in-person, to courthouses in the borough. 

“This is a significant milestone for our court system, marking the beginning of our ‘next normal,’ which we are determined will be a ‘new and better normal’ for all of us,” Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said in her weekly address Monday. 

Though the courts will be more open than they have been since March 2020, some restrictions and procedures will remain in effect for the foreseeable future. A majority of court proceedings will remain virtual for the time being, but in-person proceedings will resume over time, according to the Office of Court Administration.  

Throughout the state, all 16,000 people who work in the courts will return to their posts inside court buildings. They, along with all other people who enter into the courts, will still be required to wear masks and adhere to social distancing. Everyone will have their temperature checked at the doors and Plexiglas will remain in certain locations. 

While all court personnel will return Monday, public foot traffic will still be closely regulated. 

For the resuming in-person proceedings, there will be limits on spectators inside the courtroom, which will be determined on a case by case basis, according to the Office of Court Administration. 

In-person trials, which resumed in late March, will continue with the regulations in place. Over 400 trials have begun or been completed in New York state since March 22. 

Additionally, at least one Grand Jury has returned to every county in the state. In Queens, one of the more populous counties in New York, there are three. 

With the recent legalization of the recreational use of marijuana, courts in New York are also updating their policies when it comes to the once illegal substance. 

Any person in possession of a legal amount of marijuana – up to three ounces – will be subject to the same restrictions as a person who enters a court building with liquor, according to the OCA. The person will voucher their marijuana when they enter the building. 

Their property will be placed and sealed inside a tamper-proof envelope in front of the person and they’ll be able to pick it up on their way out. Smoking is prohibited inside or adjacent to any court building.  

The updated policy will be in full effect when the courts reopen on Monday.  

As for what comes next, the OCA is prepared to make changes as issues do or don’t arise. 

“At this point no changes [to the current policies] are foreseen, but we remain both vigilant and flexible,” a spokesperson for the office said. 

Are you heading back to the courts next week? Reach out to managing editor Jacob Kaye at jacobk@queenspublicmedia.com to share your thoughts.