Judges Chris Brasher (left) and Ben Studdard. (Photos: Courtesy and John Disney/ALM)

Some courthouses across Georgia are closing again as employees and judges who had begun restoring court operations have tested positive for COVID-19. 

On Tuesday, Superior Court Chief Judge Brenda Weaver of the Appalachian Judicial Circuit issued an emergency order shutting the courthouses in North Georgia's Gilmer and Fannin counties. Gilmer County Probate Judge Scott Chastain has tested positive for the virus, said Kevin Holder, executive director of the state Council of Probate Court Judges.

Weaver's order said that "a number of courthouse employees" are displaying COVID-19 symptoms, have been tested and are awaiting results. She said she and the chairs of the two county commissions decided it was "no longer feasible" for judicial offices in those courthouses to remain open.

Weaver ordered deep cleaning of all court and clerk offices, as well as offices of the district attorney and the Court Appointed Special Advocate.

On Tuesday, Ware County Superior Court Chief Judge Dwayne Gillis declared a judicial emergency shutting down the southeast Georgia probate court through July 19 after Probate Judge Calvin Bennett and members of his family and staff tested positive for COVID-19.   

Cobb County Probate Judge Kelli Wolk, president of the Council of Probate Court Judges, said a total of six probate judges have tested positive for the virus. One of them, Dougherty County Probate Judge Nancy Stephenson, in Albany, died April 1. 

Metro Atlanta courthouses have not been immune from the virus. In Henry County, the justice center—which houses the state, magistrate and juvenile courts— remains closed through July 10 after six court personnel, including two judges, tested positive for the virus.

Henry County State Court Judge Ben Studdard confirmed this week that he is one of a handful of court employees who work in the justice center who tested positive for COVID-19, leading to  the justice center's closure on July 1. Superior Court Chief Judge Brian Amero said a second judge and four sheriff's deputies assigned to the justice center also tested positive for the virus. Amero declined to identify either the court or the judge, citing potential medical privacy issues. 

Studdard said he tested positive two weeks ago after experiencing "very slight symptoms." The judge said that normally he wouldn't have considered his symptoms—which disappeared within a day—as serious enough to warrant a doctor's visit. "But I felt I owed it to those around me to take the test, and I wanted to set a good example," he said. "I was surprised to get a positive result."

Studdard said he self-quarantined until last Friday, 10 days after he tested positive and in consultation with health department officials. "I am grateful to have had the mildest of cases," he said.

The state Department of Public Health will make COVID-19 testing available for everyone who works in the building on Thursday, and those with negative tests may return to work on Monday, he said.

Studdard said that Henry County courts resumed operations in May "with strict health screening, distancing, and masking and with multiple small court sessions" after nearly two months in which all but emergency and some essential operations were suspended. Virtual proceedings were also conducted, he said.

"That felt like a revolution, but now we're working to offer virtual options for everything and encouraging everyone to use them," he said. We have important work to do, but we want to do it in the safest way we can."

"We all should be more vigilant," Studdard added. "I'm truly frightened by the number of people I'm hearing about going to the beach over the holidays. Our numbers in Georgia began jumping after Memorial Day; I can only imagine it getting even worse two weeks from now."

In Douglas County,  employees with clerks' offices for the county's juvenile, state, superior, probate and magistrate courts were asked to self-isolate and work from home after a county juvenile court employee with COVID-19 symptoms who had multiple contacts with other clerks in every office tested positive for the virus, Superior Court Chief Judge David Emerson said.

In Cobb County, seven employees in the county judicial complex have tested positive for the virus, including one of her license clerk, Wolk said. Those who were in close contact with staff who tested positive have been encouraged–but have not been required–by the county to be tested for the virus.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Christopher Brasher said that six courthouse employees–four working for the superior court clerk and two who work for the county sheriff in his courthouse office–have tested positive for COVID-19. Several other employees are suspected to have the virus but are awaiting test results. Half of those people were on home-work rotation, Brasher said. The others didn't hold jobs that involved public interaction.

The positive employees and any one who had contact with them have been quarantined for two weeks and will not be permitted back in the courthouse until they have tested negative,  he said. The county is also conducting contact tracing, he added.

This week, Brasher said that, while some nonessential operations, including some in-person hearings, have resumed, "We have reached a point where maybe things need to stay where they are for a while."

"We have done what we can to implement guidelines for reopening, to provide options," he added. "We need to not push past that point," especially because members of the legal community are beginning to express concerns about compelled court appearances.

"I have encouraged my colleagues and to good effect to always provide the option for folks who don't want to appear in person to be able to do that," he said. "Some things we are just not going to be able to do."

The spate of new judicial orders closing courthouses that have been working to reinstate operations suspended since March comes as Georgia Supreme Court Justice Harold Melton prepares to extend a statewide judicial emergency for at least another month. At a meeting of the state Judicial Council on Monday, Melton warned that judges who were failing to abide by the conditions of his orders about pandemic operations or follow state health department mandates could face disciplinary action by the state judicial watchdog agency.