Chief justice rescinds emergency orders as of April 30

Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye announced on Thursday four COVID-19 emergency measures she issued that delayed criminal and civil hearings and affected courts in other ways will be rescinded April 30.

Under emergency powers given to her by an order from Gov. Gavin Newsom in March 2020, Cantil-Sakauye allowed courts to delay preliminary hearings in criminal cases, which brought objections from defenders over their clients' rights to speedy trials. Delays in civil case hearings were decried by many plaintiffs' attorneys.

The chief justice's orders also increased the use of technology, and allowed fast-tracking of changes in appellate and county court rules to deal with the spread of the virus.

"These events mark an important and hopeful change as the residents and government of our state transition to a semblance of pre-COVID-19 California," Cantil-Sakauye said in a news release.

Under the emergency measures, presiding judges were allowed to delay preliminary hearings in criminal cases up to 30 days, including for defendants awaiting trial, while civil cases could be tried up to 60 days later.

"I have been objecting to these extensions for almost a year now," Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia said in a March 2021 interview with Daily Journal. He called the extensions "an abrogation of our clients' constitutional rights, of which a disproportionate number are comprised of presumed innocent, Black and brown men and women."

"Some have been in custody since the pandemic began, and although they have not been convicted, they are deprived of their freedom based on mere allegations and an inability to post bail. Of course, in this two-tiered system, the wealthy post bail and do not suffer in the same way," Garcia said.

He was unavailable for comment on Thursday.

Mentioning that California had more than 8 million cases and 80,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, Cantil-Sakauye noted Newsom declared a state of emergency on March 4, 2020, and issued Executive Order N-38-20 on March 27, 2020, to suspend Government Code Section 68115. That allowed her "to take any action I deem necessary to maintain the safe and orderly operation of the courts," as her order explained.

"I wasn't aware [of the order] but I'm not surprised," commented R. Rex Parris of Parris Law Firm in Lancaster. "At some point the benefits outweigh the risks." He was less than enthusiastic about going back to pre-COVID-19 procedures. "There's a tendency to go back to the way things were without learning from what happened," Parris said. "The cost of litigation is phenomenally expensive. We have this illusion the system is available to everyone. It's not. This is a lie. For the first time ever we have the technology and training to do it in Zoom. We reduced the cost dramatically, and they are going to throw it away? That's a mistake. It's a sin."

"At one point you have to ask, 'How can we improve the lives of the people we serve?' By using the technology we purchased. I understand people need jobs, but we're talking about making justice available to everyone. As they propose it, without money you will have no justice," he continued.

"Rolling back on the waiting times is good for the people, especially while they are languishing in jail. I do support her on that end," Parris said.

Brian J. Panish of Panish Shea & Boyle LLP said, "My take is that Cantil-Sakauye is trying to get things back as soon as possible. Now that the emergency situation is not such, we are going to open back up. I am glad the court recognizes things are improving and people are getting their constitutional rights back."

"There were drastic measures adopted that restricted people's ability to go to trial," Panish continued. "Now the court needs to deal with the backlog, but it was a drastic situation. We weren't happy we couldn't move trials forward, but the reality was what it was. It was a tough balancing act between constitutional rights and having to protect the security and well-being of the people."

Cantil-Sakauye's news release said her changes affect statewide orders. "Any extensions of time I authorized in an emergency order or orders issued to an individual court pursuant to Government Code Section 68115 are not affected by this order."