N95 masks and medical surgical masks. Photo: Maridav/Shutterstock.com

Courts across Texas are busy planning to reopen courthouses to in-person proceedings, but first, they need personal protective equipment.

Judges now are putting in requests for the same scarce PPE that hospitals and first responders have been seeking during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Texas Office of Court Administration has stepped in with an attempt to get the judiciary the gear it needs to reopen safely.

Since last week, it's become a full-time job for Court Security Director Hector Gomez to listen to judges about the masks, sanitizer and other needs and help pass the information to either county emergency management personnel, or the Texas Department of Emergency Management.

Texas Lawyer talked with Gomez about why judges need PPE, the types of gear they're requesting and more. Here are his answers, edited for style and clarity.

Texas Lawyer: Why do Texas courts need personal protective equipment?

Gomez: Before the courts can have in-person hearings at the courthouse, they have to have an operation plan in place and in practice, approved by local county and municipal leaderships. They will submit the operational plan to the Office of Court Administration. At some point in time, we expect to have 254 plans in place, prior to the opening of any court-related hearings in person.

Read more: Things Will Change When Texas Courthouses Reopen: Judiciary Lays Road Map for After June 1

So these plans talk about face coverings?

Gomez: Yes. With that guidance in place, the courts in counties and municipalities, like every one else, were having issues with acquiring the PPE, because just a lack of PPE available on the commercial side and business side of things. With the lack of this equipment, OCA is attempting to direct their requests through the Texas Department of Emergency Management. TDEM in turn facilitates their requests. There's a prioritization of need: Hospitals and first responders, things of that nature. Courts, as an essential entity, are in that prioritization list.

What type of gear are we talking about?

Gomez: Sanitizer, obviously, is a big need; noncontact thermometers, gloves, masks. Plexiglas has come up a time or two. Wipes and Clorox—those seem to be the most frequent items. What I see the most is masks, gloves and hand sanitizer.

Is this only for employees, or also people like jurors, witnesses, lawyers or others in court? Who will get it?

Gomez: Essentially it will be for employees and the public. It's a holistic courthouse approach to anyone entering the courthouse to be able to have a mask, wear gloves or whatever the protocols for that individual courthouse are going to be. You may have some that elect to require no gloves and be a mask-only courthouse.

Why has the OCA decided to try to help the courts to get this, instead of the counties providing it to their courts?

Gomez: That's actually the first decision that needs to be made. The county needs to try to acquire the supplies through their local emergency management coordinator. If there's no way to fulfill that need, then the local county emergency management coordinator has processes in place to facilitate a request directly to TDEM.

Certain resources are available to state agencies through this process—this TDEM process—that are not available to the local county courts, like JP courts and municipal courts.

Principally, TDEM is there for state agencies—state judges. We do have a lot of state judges that are tenants and maintain offices and chambers inside local courthouses.

Will all courts be able to get the PPE that they need in order to open up when they want?

Gomez: It's going to be more of a gradual opening as we get this equipment deployed. Perhaps the large metropolitan areas are in a better position to reopen quicker.

It will take a while. A lot of courts will be at the behest of when their PPE will arrive.