We have seen a lot of change these past three years, much of it damaging such as the devastating loss of family, friends and colleagues and frightening uncertainty. We have also experienced seismic shifts in how we go about our daily lives and some of these changes have been quite positive. During this time, the Unified Court System saw many of its own changes and shifts, and our justice system has grown and evolved as the pandemic has become endemic.

We have one of the largest, busiest and most complex court systems in the world, with millions of new case filings each year, and COVID compelled the court system to reevaluate—in a manner of days—the way that we dispense justice. Our court system reinvented itself, nearly overnight, as we adopted wholesale the use of virtual technology. As the course of the pandemic and public health guidance evolved, the courts developed a flexible, hybrid appearance model, combining the use of virtual proceedings with a return to in-person proceedings when necessary.