COURTS ARE BACK

 As of June 21, 2021, at 12:01 AM courts in Florida are back baby! 

As per the order of the CJ of the Florida Supreme Court (Motto: "Remember us?") issued last week,  Courts must implement these new procedures starting June 21, 2021, although they have until August 2, 2021 to do so.  Here are the highlights: 

Participants and observers MAY wear a face mask in Court. They do not have to do so (and the Governor is prohibited from doing so); 

Participants may request to be physically distanced from each other. Rumpole routinely stays as far away as possible  from court participants who wear black robes, so this is nothing new to us; 

What about Zoom you ask? The CJ has ruled that CJ's of each circuit must develop procedures for continuing to use Zoom where helpful, so it's up to Judge Nushin "Zoom" Sayfie to implement Miami Zoom procedures; 

Appellate proceedings may be remote or in person as per the CJ of each appellate court; 

Jury selection may be done remotely if everyone agrees; 

Bench trials and other non-jury trials like Parental Termination Hearings can be done remotely if everyone agrees; 

There are a whole bunch of rules on civil cases requiring everyone to try and close the case quickly blah blah blah blah blah...; 

SPEEDY TRIAL is suspended until "the close of business" (whatever that means) on October 4, 2021, for all people taken into custody on or before March 14. 2020 and January 3, 2022 for people taken into custody after March 14, 2020; 

The time remaining in a speedy trial will be determined by the date it is back in existence, minus the time period of the extensions- which is this simple formulae:

x¯=x1+x2+…+xnn=Σixin

THAT TEN DAY TIME PERIOD under the speedy trial rule to try a case when speedy trial has expired and a valid motion is filed is EXTENDED TO 30 DAYS and even then can be extended because of "crowded dockets",  personnel issues, availability of courtrooms, basically any problem caused by Covid. In other words, if you think you're going to be slick and win a case on a speedy trial motion, the trial judge is going to extend the time period and write "BECAUSE OF COVID" in the order and that will be that.   

So now we are ready; shoes shined; suits hanging in a closet unused for a year; files dusted off. Lets open the REGKB and PICK SIX (while socially distancing from you know who)!