In an effort to move cases forward amid the COVID-19 pandemic and to avoid a significant backlog in the Superior Court system, the state's Judicial Branch has announced it will resume its daily schedule of remote civil pretrials and trial management and status conferences on May 19.

The cases couldn't be heard remotely until this month, Chief Judge Administrator for Civil Matters James Abrams said Tuesday because the court's information technology personnel needed to show all the Superior Court judges in the state how to use the technology.

"We just could not do it sooner because the training was not in place," said Abrams, who noted that hundreds of cases that were scheduled to be heard between March 23 and May 18 will be part of the court's backlog.

"Statewide, we are talking about a backlog in the high hundreds," the judge said.

Beginning to hear civil pretrials, and holding trial management and status conferences next week will help reduce the backlog when the courts reopen, Abrams said.

"Taking these steps will—down the line—I hope and expect make the tasks of hearing cases less daunting," he said.

Abrams said he expects telecommuting to continue for the long run.

"A lot of what we are doing, and will be doing, will continue remotely even when the pandemic is over," he said. "I do suspect that is how it will be. Working remotely will save the lawyers travel time. This is sort of a test drive for us. It's an exciting time to innovate with technology, and some of that technology will continue after we are back to normal."

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Years too late?

Attorneys who have cases before the courts, applauded the announcement. Others questioned why judges still needed to get up to speed with working remotely when the technology has been in place for decades.

"Some of this should have been in place years ago," said Hartford solo practitioner Ken Krayeske. "The federal courts have the capability of doing almost everything remotely. The state courts are behind in that effort. It's nice the state is catching up, but it shouldn't have taken a crisis to do so. I wish it had happened years ago."

Robert Reardon Jr. of New London-based The Reardon Law Firm said attorneys and judges miss being away from work.

"I know that both attorneys and judges are anxious to get to work from home. This is long-awaited, as we have been urging the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association and our Judicial Branch to move forward as quickly as possible," he said. "We have a significant backlog of motions and pretrials that have been delayed because of COVID-19."

Reardon continued: "We are pleased that judicial has been able to organize so that they can take on the complex responsibility of doing their work remotely. It won't be easy, but it's essential."

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