Chief justice details lessons learned during court shutdowns

Echoing themes recently voiced by Gov. Gavin Newsom, California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye said in her annual State of the Judiciary speech, "We are close to the end of a two-year worldwide pandemic" and moving into the endemic phase of COVID-19.

Breaking with tradition, Cantil-Sakauye delivered her 2022 State of the Judiciary address in a closed session on March 10 during the Judicial Council's first in-person meeting in over two years. The agency released the footage of her speech on Wednesday.

She compared the pandemic to the last major disaster to affect the courts. The so-called great recession provided an opportunity to address overdue changes, she said, like creating an ability-to-pay calculator for fines and fees and allowing people to handle traffic infractions online.

The speech centered on the lessons the judicial branch learned during the pandemic. One of the main ones, she said, was that remote appearances come with many advantages besides avoiding spreading a deadly virus.

"We learned that people in collaborative courts, in mental health courts, or in drug courts, could still have their day in court without missing a session," Cantil-Sakauye said. "We found that school-aged children and guardians with nontraditional work schedules could also have their day in court."

Remote appearances could also be more comfortable for some kinds of litigants, such as domestic violence survivors, juvenile delinquency defendants and children in family law cases, she noted.

She also praised the governor for giving her "unprecedented authority to protect the public and our courthouses." In 2020, Newsom signed AB 3366, which gave the chair of the Judicial Council the ability to issue orders responding to disasters affecting multiple counties.

Cantil-Sakauye also reminded the audience that one of the Judicial Council's most criticized moves -- banning evictions from April through August in 2020 -- had special significance for her.

"My family was evicted via eminent domain when I was 9 years old, and it was life defining; it separated our extended family," she told the private audience.

Cantil-Sakauye has occasionally told the story during previous interviews and public events. Her family was forced out of their home because of a redevelopment project. Her mother's failed court battle against the eviction helped inspire Cantil-Sakauye's legal career.

The Judicial Council's eviction ban was partly practical, she said, and not just to "avoid a statewide eviction crisis."

"We as a court needed to shrink our in-person footprint so as not to become a super spreader," she said. "But we also couldn't see evicting people during a time of shelter-in-place orders while some people were losing their incomes. Eviction is more than just being moved. It's a life-changing event."

Cantil-Sakauye said the judicial branch is now evaluating how to make changes in how juries are selected.

"There are recommendations to have state-funded increases in juror pay, and to have jurors complete the questionnaires and the hardship applications online," she said. "We believe that those improvements will create a diverse, broader prospective jury pool."