(Editor's note: This story has been corrected. A previous version indicated St. Louis City Circuit Court would not be holding trials beginning next week. The St. Louis Record regrets the error).
St. Louis County Circuit Court will host no criminal or civil jury trials within the 21st Judicial Circuit next week starting on Jan. 24, according to an order signed this week by Presiding Judge Mary Elizabeth Ott.
“Notwithstanding the fact that the Court will remain open, it is imperative that the Court take steps to protect the health and safety of all employees of the Court, all judicial officers, all attorneys, all litigants, all victims, all witnesses and any other individuals or entities who have cases and hearings pending in Court, while also balancing the rights of all said individuals to have their matters heard,” Ott wrote in the Jan. 19 administrative order.
Witt
Ott issued the order after the Missouri Supreme Court directed its courts to consider strategies to prevent the spread of respiratory germs into, within, and between facilities and left such decision-making to the discretion of Presiding Judges.
“Trial courts are doing their best to balance the needs of the litigants, victims and the parties to get their cases decided with the safety of the people who are coming before the court, the safety of the jurors that we’re summoning in to appear before the court and the safety of the staff in the buildings,” said Judge Gary Witt, who sits on the Western District Missouri Court of Appeals. “Almost every courthouse has multiple employees that are immunocompromised in some fashion or another. So, you have to consider those individuals that are working in the court system when you're deciding how you're going to address and what measures you're going to take to try to protect them as well as everyone else that's coming before the court.”
The CDC defines the immunocompromised as people who have HIV/AIDS or cancer and transplant patients who are taking immunosuppressive pharmaceuticals, for example.
“We did not have any delays throughout the entire course of the COVID pandemic because we moved at various times, back and forth, between virtual oral arguments and some parties had waived oral argument and just submitted their case on the briefs,” Witt told the St. Louis Record. “So, we have been able to keep up with our work here at the Court of Appeals. All of the appellate courts in Missouri generally have.”
The Saint Louis County Department of Health, and the Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force anticipates that the current rate of infection is currently at its peak, according to media reports. As of Jan. 20, 2022, the St. Louis COVID dashboard reports 41,526 confirmed coronavirus cases and 685 deaths.
“I understand the frustration,” Witt added. “Everyone's weary from COVID and trying to deal with the impact of this virus on, on the community and on our daily lives. We don't have generally large groups of witnesses or parties that come to court. Generally, it's the lawyers on each side that come to court and argue so the number of people we have in front of us on a given docket is much, much smaller than anything the trial court sees."