New York judges, staff ordered back to courthouses May 24

Chief Judge Janet DiFiore ordered judges and staff to return to courthouses May 24.  AP Photo

By David Brand

New York’s top judge on Monday ordered all jurists and staff in the state to return to courthouses for in-person proceedings on May 24.

During a weekly message to the New York legal community, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said the decreasing rate of COVID-19 and the rising number of vaccinated New Yorkers prompted the decision to resume all in-person functions for the first time since March 2020. 

“It is time to return to our normal and full courthouse staffing levels in order to support the fuller resumption of in-person operations, including jury trials and other proceedings in our courts,” DiFiore said. “The COVID vaccine is now widely available to New Yorkers over 16 years of age, the state is easing public health restrictions on indoor gatherings, and the economy is reopening in response to the continuing decline in COVID positivity rates and hospitalizations.”

She said the staffing plan mirrors Gov. Cuomo’s decision earlier Monday to loosen gathering and indoor activity restrictions. 

DiFiore said safety measures like doorway COVID screening and temperature checks, mandatory face masks and social distancing protocols will continue.

Jury trials will resume apace across the state at that time, she added. There are 55 jury trials scheduled for this week. Jury trials resumed for a brief period in November, and again last month.

The court system’s reopening plans have met mixed responses in the legal community over the past several months, as face-to-face functions gradually resume.

Clifford Welden, the president of the Queens County Bar Association, said the court system should not apply a one-size-fits-all to the resumption of in-person functions in a state where urban counties, like Queens, continue to see disturbing levels of COVID-19. New York City’s seven-day test positivity rate dropped below 5 percent for the first time in months Monday, but two zip codes — 11416 in Elmhurst and 1135 in Flushing — have rates above 10 percent.

About a third of Queens residents have received one dose of a vaccine, city data shows.

“They shouldn’t bring juries in until there’s a 60 percent vaccination rates in the county,” Welden said. “I don’t care how many people are eligible to get the vaccine, they should look at the actual percentages in the county.”

Welden pointed to daily reports of positive COVID-19 cases published by the Office of Court Administration to alert people whether they have encountered someone with the illness.

“Every week we’re seeing five or six people who are sick,” he said.