The novel coronavirus pandemic is disrupting many aspects of everyday life — and the judicial system is no exception. “COVID-19 continues to challenge the operations of the Connecticut Judicial Branch as we seek to protect the safety and health of the public and our employees and judges. At the same time, we must meet our constitutional obligations,” Chief Court Administrator Patrick L. Carroll III said. Priority one includes domestic violence and juvenile matters, as well as arraignments of individuals held in custody without posting bond. Danbury’s State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky said they’re trying their best to streamline processes and be mindful of stuff that can wait and stuff that can’t wait like domestic violence cases and violent crime. “We gave continuances until the end of March and beginning of April, and then saw that wasn’t going to work out so we extended it to after May 18,” he said. “I’m guessing that there’s probably going to be a six-month time period where it’s going to take a while to get back up to speed, and people will need to be given notice as to when their next court dates are.”
Update on Civil Cases and Family Court
Statement from Chief Court Administrator Patrick L. Carroll III Addressing Divorces, Civil Matters
“As I have stressed since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the CT Judicial Branch has concentrated its efforts on mitigating the spread of the virus, keeping our workforce, Judges and the public, safe and healthy and focusing our work on handling only those Priority 1 matters that must be addressed. With the input of our Chief Administrative Judges and under the leadership of Deputy Chief Court Administrator Elizabeth A. Bozzuto, we are now able to expand the scope of our work to include certain matters other than “Priority 1” matters. Our goal is to incrementally increase the volume of court work that can be handled by Judges and court staff.
“Key to this initiative is the ability to process, review and/or resolve matters remotely. We will concentrate initially on civil and family cases. With civil matters, almost all documents are e-filed, making it much simpler for a clerk or judge to take action. We anticipate that our judges and clerks will have the ability to act on various matters, including, but not limited to: completing and issuing decisions in cases that were previously argued or submitted and processing other matters on the papers filed rather than requiring parties to appear in court.
Regarding family matters, we have identified two areas that may be addressed remotely: 1) Approval of joint petitions for non-adversarial divorce; and 2) entering court orders regarding requests for approval of temporary agreements, without a court appearance.
Our judges and staff will start addressing these civil and family matters within days. I appreciate the invaluable input from our judges and court clerks on this initiative, and I am very grateful for the patience of the bar and public as we work our way through this unprecedented situation.”
Re-Opening Connecticut Courts
Connecticut’s Supreme and Appellate courts – in an effort to continue hearing cases amid the pandemic — will hear arguments remotely in April and May, respectively. The Supreme Court will begin hearing cases remotely on Monday, April 27. The case assignment for the Supreme Court will be available on the Judicial Branch’s website no later than Tuesday, April 21. It is expected that the Supreme Court will remotely hear two cases per day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the weeks of April 27 and May 4. Audio recordings of these oral arguments will be available to the public on the Judicial Branch’s website following the argument.
The Appellate Court will begin hearing cases remotely beginning Monday, May 11. The case assignment for the Appellate Court will be available no later than Tuesday, May 5, on the Judicial Branch’s website. It is expected that the Appellate Court will remotely hear three cases per day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday the weeks of May 11, May 18, and May 25.
While the courts may be slowly hearing cases, when your case is called, we have to be ready for it. If we are not prepared to be heard, the case may be dismissed. Guendelsberger Law is actively managing all our cases to ensure we are ready when that call comes.