Judicial Council to end emergency rules June 30

The Judicial Council voted unanimously Friday to end its remaining pandemic emergency rules, effective June 30. But courts across the state will continue to operate differently than they did before the pandemic.

"The rules were always intended to be temporary," Marsha G. Slough, chair of the Executive and Planning Committee and a justice of the 4th District Court of Appeal, said, during the council's regular monthly meeting Friday.

Slough said the remaining orders fell into three main categories: criminal, civil, and family and juvenile cases. For instance, Emergency Rule 3 allowed for remote criminal proceedings, while Rule 5 allowed criminal defendants to waive appearances under certain circumstances.

Several other rules, such as the emergency bail schedule and a ban on unlawful detainer and foreclosure cases, had already expired. In some instances, this was after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed new laws addressing the same issues, such as legislative eviction moratoria.

The council adopted 11 emergency rules on April 6, 2020, to help courts continue to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Feb. 17, Newsom announced California would be the first state in the nation to move to an "endemic approach" to the virus. This indicates that Newsom believes the virus can be managed but likely not eradicated.

On Feb. 25, he signed Executive Order N-04-22, which will phase out many of his emergency orders over the past two years by June 30. These include Executive Order N-38-20, the March 27, 2020 order that suspended limits on the Judicial Council's authority to set emergency rules. Judicial Council Administrative Director Martin Hoshino said this "reality" meant the vote was mainly about ensuring "clarity" for courts.

"The authority which these rules are predicated upon evaporates on June 30 ... now is the figure out an orderly way to transition," Hoshino.

The proposal specified that any sunset date did "not nullify any of the valid actions that court or litigants were authorized to take under the rules when they were in effect." This was included to prevent any confusion of conflicts in court calendars because of orders made under the emergency rules for tolling and time extensions.

Slough said courts will continue to hold remote appearances in the future, partly because of new state laws allowing for remote appearances in civil proceedings after the emergency rules expire.

"Remote technology became much more widely used during the pandemic, and it actually provided a way for people to access the courts like they never had before," Slough said.