Worries about the potential spread of COVID-19 throughout the county’s legal system have driven a new effort to convert as many functions as possible to the virtual world. Even though many proceedings have been delayed or canceled, the small number that continue expose legal professionals and defendants to potentially contracting the virus on a near-daily basis.
“There is no concept of social distancing in court,” Kern County Public Defender Pam Singh said at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
She later told The Californian in an interview that it was difficult to have confidential conversations with clients from 6 feet apart.
“We have to talk to our clients,” she added. “We have them fill out paperwork. We have to advise them. The concern runs both ways, from us to our client, from the client to us and the larger community.”
While court proceeding like trials have been delayed, and others like arraignments are now done over video, pre-trial and evidentiary hearings for certain cases are still continuing. The hearings involve attorneys, a judge, court staff, witnesses, defendants, and sometimes interpreters, all coming together to work out last-minute deals before a potential trial.
And because judges typically hear many cases in one day in the same courtroom, multiple legal teams can gather in one courtroom to await their turn.
“It can add up really quickly,” said Deputy District Attorney Joseph Kinzel.
Given the exponential increase in coronavirus transmission, and the large number of individuals who can become quickly infected, Kern County leaders expressed concern over the potential spread in the court system on Tuesday.
Referring to a study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that found the virus would peak in California in late-April, Supervisor Mike Maggard said more must be done.
“Hundreds and hundreds of interactions are going to take place between now and April 27, and then it will be weeks before the curve falls back down,” he said. “The social distancing guideline is not sufficient. It does not deal with the circumstances we are putting our employees in. We need something beyond that.”
Today, the county will hold a meeting to determine if some pre-trial hearings can be completed using video conferencing technology. Kinzel said such an effort was possible, but would require witnesses traveling to the DA’s Office to present testimony in individual rooms. Eventually, though, witnesses could testify from home.
The court has yet to approve such a method, and doing so would require defense attorneys to have the ability to conduct private conversations with their clients.
“If we can talk to the client remotely through video and have confidential communication, that would be ideal,” Singh said, noting that while more could be done, she was happy with the proactive steps taken by the court so far. “It would also help ease anxiety for the client. After all, they are sitting next to us as well.”
©2020 The Bakersfield Californian (Bakersfield, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
