Contra Costa County Superior Court, located at 725 Court St., Martinez, California (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

They don't teach new judges how to build Plexiglass shields for witness stands at judicial college.

Squeezing physically distanced jurors into a single courtroom for a three-defendant felony trial isn't in the curriculum. Neither are methods for enticing a pandemic-scared public to appear for jury service.

And yet those are just some of the tasks presiding judges, their colleagues and staff are dealing with as many trial courts around California prepare to ramp up services over the next two weeks.

Since March, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has issued more than 150 temporary emergency orders for trial courts across the state, extending statutory deadlines so court workers, would-be jurors and attorneys could comply with government stay-at-home orders. Now, with many of those orders expiring and lockdowns easing, court leaders are trying to figure out how to safely relaunch operations.

The Judicial Council has a 2006 guidebook for handling epidemics. But the 39 pages of guidance never envisioned searches for electrostatic sanitizers or training on privacy-sensitive public temperature scanning. 

"Even though we're opening, it's not business as usual," said Contra Costa County Superior Court Presiding Judge Barry Baskin. "It's anything but."

Contra Costa plans to "reopen" on May 26, a little over two months after the court became the first in the state to shut down most services on March 13 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The court was never really closed; a smaller bench of judges, reduced staff and attorneys continued to handle urgent matters—some by parties appearing remotely, others in person—while courthouse doors were generally locked to the public.

But the backlog of delayed criminal trials and proceedings has ballooned in that two-month period, and now it's time to release some of that pressure, Baskin said.

"It's already unmanageable," he said. "Every day that goes by you're adding to something that's unmanageable."

Some courts have used phone- or video-conferencing to keep proceedings moving during the pandemic and plan to continue doing so in the coming weeks and months. That hasn't been possible in other courts, either due to physical logistics or disagreements among parties about what hearings should take place remotely.

When courthouses reopen Tuesday, Contra Costa's plan is to keep courthouse visitors six feet apart; Baskin expects a long line to form at the security station where everyone will have their temperature scanned. Summonses that once brought 200 to 300 prospective jurors to the assembly room every morning and afternoon will now be significantly reduced and time-staggered to eliminate crowds.

Jury selection will also be a more arduous process with a smaller pool and fewer prospective jurors allowed in each courtroom to allow for physical distancing. A run-of-the-mill, low-level felony trial that used to take five days to complete may now last three weeks, Baskin predicted, as the jury-picking process slows to a crawl.

Another complication: everyone in a Contra Costa County courthouse is expected to wear a face covering. But the public defender's office has raised concerns about shielding the facial expressions of witnesses. So now court leaders are trying to configure Plexiglass shields for witness stands to meet both transparency and safety needs. Baskin calls court executive officer Kate Bieker his "magician-in-chief" for her work trying to solve each operations conundrum.

"This is all the wild west right now," the presiding judge said. "We're making this up as we go."

Across the bay, San Mateo County Superior Court Presiding Judge Jonathan Karesh is facing many of the same issues. Court leaders hope to resume jury trials on June 15. Pre-pandemic, a courtroom might hold 70 prospective jurors for voir dire. That number will now be reduced to 10 or 15 at a single time.

Redwood City courthouse officials are talking with the operators of a history museum across the street—the building used to be a courthouse—about using the space there to host jurors. They're also talking about erecting a tent on courthouse grounds where prospective jurors can check in and perhaps answer questionnaires without having to go into the courthouse.

There are constant meetings about logistics, procedures, sanitizing, employee safety and public health guidance.

"This is a one-in-a-100-year event," Karesh said. "It's probably the biggest professional challenge I've ever faced."

One of the biggest questions for both presiding judges is how many jurors will actually show up at the courthouses and what the resulting pools will look like. Contra Costa County residents who are older than 60 or who have underlying health conditions are automatically excused, Baskin said.

Karesh wrote a letter that goes out with summonses, trying to reassure recipients about the steps court administrators are taking to try to keep them safe.

"Jurors are understandably upset about being summoned," Baskin said, but "a defendant's right to a speedy trial is not necessarily suspended."

Other courts scheduled to reopen or scale up services during the week of May 26 include San Diego County, Del Norte and Orange counties.