Jury duty — it’s coming back.
Yolo Superior Court officials plan to resume jury trials on Monday, July 6, more than three months after the coronavirus pandemic ground those proceedings — which typically bring large numbers of people into the Woodland courthouse — to a halt.
“It is time to restart jury trials here in Yolo,” Presiding Judge Samuel McAdam said in a news release issued this week. “They are an essential function of constitutional law and a free society.”
McAdam pledged that jury duty will be conducted “in a safe and smart way,” with mandatory mask requirements, social distancing protocols and increased sanitation practices implemented to protect those who serve.
With jury summonses expected to arrive in residents’ mailboxes starting Monday, Court Executive Officer Shawn Landry assured that “the court has made significant changes to the jury service protocol to ensure the safety of all potential jurors required to appear.”
They include:
- The court will follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for social distancing.
- All jurors and persons entering the courthouse are required to wear face coverings at all times while inside the courthouse.
- There will be staggered reporting times to reduce the number of people in the jury assembly room and courtroom. Juror seating will be marked accordingly. The jury assembly room, which can hold up to 320 people, will accommodate no more than 60.
- Jury orientation and hardships will be conducted virtually by Zoom or by phone on the Friday afternoon prior to start of trial on Monday. This will eliminate the jurors need to gather in the jury assembly room to complete the orientation and will limit the number of people in the courtroom for jury selection.
- Sneeze guards have been installed in the jury service office as well as in the jury box of each courtroom.
- Enhanced sanitation protocols will be followed.
- Text and email alerts are available to jurors and can be set up by logging into the Jury Portal.
- Jury service staff are available by phone and email to answer questions.
Yolo Superior Court Presiding Judge Samuel McAdam. Courtesy photo
With social-distancing protocols also expected to limit the amount of seating available to the public, “we plan to stream court hearings via YouTube so members of the media and public can listen to the cases remotely without entering the courthouse,” McAdam said.
Yolo began live-streaming court proceedings in April, starting with the Department 1 arraignment calendar and expanding that service as additional courtrooms resumed their caseloads on May 4.
Currently, the Woodland courthouse has 11 of its courtrooms operating, with proceedings for seven of them — comprising the criminal, civil and probate courts — streamed live on YouTube. Check it out here: yolo.courts.ca.gov/online-services/hearing-stream.
In most cases, judges, attorneys, probation officers and defendants attend the hearings remotely, either via videoconference or telephone, to reduce the number of people entering the courthouse. More recently, the court began approving the transport of Yolo County Jail inmates who requested to appear in person for their preliminary hearings.
“The defendant has a right to be present in the courtroom, and we are honoring that right,” McAdam, the presiding judge, told The Enterprise in a phone interview Thursday.
Elsewhere in the courthouse, the indoor clerk windows remain closed, though two that are accessible from outside the courthouse are open to agencies and the public.
Other court business continues to be conducted via email and phone, including the court’s self-help center that also plans to accept clients by appointment, in person or via the Zoom video platform, starting Monday.
“We’re operating in an entirely different manner,” Court Executive Officer Shawn Landry said during Thursday’s phone interview. “It was quite difficult to do, but I think we’ve been successful at it.”
So successful, in fact, that the court plans to explore making some virtual proceedings permanent.
For example, crime victims fearful of or intimidated by the idea of being in the courtroom may be able to continue viewing the hearings online instead. Attorneys with matters in multiple counties on a single day can potentially avoid lengthy travel times with video or call-in appearances.
The court plans to discuss those potential changes with members of the local bar and justice partners, McAdam said.
“The important thing is that the court is fully functioning. It’s a virtual courthouse,” he added. As other courthouses across the state have stalled their operations, “Yolo really has been a model, and we’re very proud of it.”
For more information on Yolo Superior Court’s COVID-19 response, visit www.yolo.courts.ca.gov.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene