“Without courts we don’t have a country.”\u00a0 A judge said this to me and opposing counsel in her chambers this morning.\u00a0 Then she rescheduled our hearing–on a petition we filed in July, 2019–to August, 2020.\u00a0 Along with other divisions of the courts, divorce and family court judges are determining how to balance public health with the right of U.S. citizens to access our court system to resolve disputes.<\/p>\n
My client, a nurse, told me today that COVID-19 is much more contagious than the influenza strains medical professionals typically encounter.\u00a0 The Coronavirus survives on hard surfaces longer than other viruses and is therefore especially communicable.\u00a0 In a courtroom that may serve 50-100 litigants, lawyers, witnesses, jurors, spectators and court staff every day–all of whom touch the same doorknobs, chairs, desks, tables,\u00a0 documents and countless other surfaces–imagine the potential for spreading this novel virus.<\/p>\n
So why not just shut the courts down?\u00a0 Well, here a few reasons . . . .\u00a0 Victims of domestic violence need restraining orders.\u00a0 Children need to be removed from parents who are abusive or strung out on drugs.\u00a0 Last week, in one of my divorce cases, my client’s wife obtained an ex parte<\/em> (without informing my client and without my client’s having an opportunity to be heard) “emergency” order taking away my client’s access to his children by making false allegations against my client.\u00a0 His court hearing to try to get his children back is set for next week.\u00a0 Do you think he wants his hearing postponed?<\/p>\n The situation changes daily, but for now, I think our divorce \/ family court judges are doing a remarkable job of balancing public health concerns with the public’s right to access our courts.\u00a0 Here are some things the courts are doing now:<\/p>\n Our office continues to function and prosecute cases as usual, with the exception of in-office meetings.\u00a0 For the time being, we are conducting virtually all our client communication via email and phone.\u00a0 Our clients want their cases to move forward, and at our firm we will insure that happens.\u00a0 \u00a0We will adapt to the courts’ temporary changes and continue to give our clients the best possible representation in their divorce and family law cases.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2020 by Scoresby Family Law \u2013 J. Kyle Scoresby, P.C. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Without courts we don’t have a country.”\u00a0 A judge said this to me and opposing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-stuff"],"yoast_head":"\n\n