In re Admin. Rule 17 Emergency Relief for Ind. Trial Courts Relating to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

• Decision Date: 10 November 2020
• Docket Number: Supreme Court Case No. 20S-CB-123
• Citation: 155 N.E.3d 1191 (Mem)
• Parties: In the MATTER OF ADMINISTRATIVE RULE 17 EMERGENCY RELIEF FOR INDIANA TRIAL COURTS RELATING TO the 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

155 N.E.3d 1191 (Mem)

In the MATTER OF ADMINISTRATIVE RULE 17 EMERGENCY RELIEF FOR INDIANA TRIAL COURTS RELATING TO the 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19).

Supreme Court Case No. 20S-CB-123

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Filed November 10, 2020

Order on Continued Emergency Actions

The public health emergency persists, as COVID-19 continues to spread. The Court, with the collaborative assistance of judges and practitioners, has released protocols on how to safely resume normal court operations and protocols for mitigating in-court exposures.

Despite these efforts, there have been outbreaks as a result of court proceedings and operations. Large outbreaks have involved entire probation departments; judicial officers and court staff have tested positive—sadly, one court employee has died—and courts have closed; and jurors have become symptomatic and infected others during trials, leading to mistrials and subsequent infection of non-participants and family members. These incidents highlight the need for more aggressive approaches to in-person trial court operations.

Trial judges have an obligation to help protect their communities by taking proactive, responsible steps to minimize the potential for exposure and infection in—and from—their courtrooms by reducing in-person proceedings. Judges have broad authority to take those steps as well as comply with local public health mandates.

Trial courts should work with their local justice system partners and public health and emergency authorities to adjust court operations as conditions require to maintain essential functions and ensure the administration of justice while protecting the health of court personnel, court users, and Hoosiers outside the courtroom.

Trial courts have inherent authority to

1. suspend and/or reschedule any individual criminal or civil jury trials for a limited time (subject in criminal cases to the Constitutional right to speedy trial and Constitutional protection against double jeopardy);

2. pursuant to Criminal Rule 4, order a continuance of any criminal trial upon the finding of an emergency, without the necessity of a motion;

3. suspend new juror orientations, extend existing jury panels, and/or postpone jury service to a later date for jurors who are ill, caring for someone who is ill or a dependent child at home due to school closure or quarantine, or in a high-risk category;

4. continue and/or reschedule non-essential hearings (excluding emergency matters, domestic violence hearings, and evidentiary hearings in criminal cases);

5. allow a county's judges to exercise general jurisdiction over cases in each other's courts;

6. issue summons in lieu of bench warrants or notices of failure to appear;

7. limit in-court spectators, subject to applicable Constitutional limitations; and

8. review, in collaboration with their local criminal justice partners, county-jail and direct-placement community correction sentences of non-violent inmates and juveniles to mitigate the spread within detention facilities.

Additionally, if local needs require broad emergency...