Georgia's chief justice will issue a series of orders Thursday lifting most Supreme Court filing deadlines suspended in March when he declared a statewide judicial emergency to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Chief Justice Harold Melton said many filing deadlines suspended since March 14  pertain to electronic filings of written documents rather than court proceedings requiring in-person contact.

Beginning Thursday, the Supreme Court will enter specific orders reinstating suspended deadlines in nearly all cases that were pending prior to March 14. 

"We have cases that are ready to move," Melton said. "We have the capacity to move them safely. So we will." 

The new orders do not revoke deadline extensions for filing new proceedings, including appeals. The statewide judicial emergency  — which continues the suspension of all civil and criminal jury trials and bars courts from summoning and impaneling new trial and grand juries —  remains in place through June 12.

Effective May 28, parties in pending cases will have the same amount of time to submit court filings as they had when the March 14 emergency declaration took effect. Litigants and their counsel must submit a timeliness certificate with each filing reflecting the new filing deadline.  Litigants may seek extensions for good cause related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The high court has also issued an emergency rule addressing the certificate.

Melton will issue orders directing that beginning May 28, normal filing deadlines will be in effect for most new cases, although litigants may seek extensions for good cause related to COVID-19.

In an interview on the "Good Judge-ment Podcast," Melton said he and fellow justices are now working to "climb out of this crisis."

"We've got to keep the courthouses open because there are  certain functions that only the courts can do, … and we have to maintain the baseline functions of what the judicial system is," he explained.

"While this pandemic is upon us, everything is sitting," Melton explained.  Meanwhile, he said, a backlog of cases "is just building and building. So,  when this pandemic comes to a close, those floodgates are going to open, and anything we can do to mitigate that backlog will be very helpful."

Melton said that under the new order, he wants the courts to "push, but exercise some good judgment," if court appearance and other deadline notices have been delayed.

"These are real tough judgment calls judges have to make," he said. "There are just no good clean answers. That's just the kind of space that we are operating in right now."

But Melton also said that across the state, judges "are ready to work." 

"I think they are ready to get to the business of reestablishing order," Melton said. "These judges are mission-oriented. And they feel somewhat at a loss that they are not able to perform their mission. And it's just not sitting well with them.  … They are ready to get to work."

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the order only applies to the Georgia Supreme Court.