MARYLAND JUDICIARY | SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON JUDICIAL COMPENSATION
services included bail reviews, protective orders, peace orders, extreme risk protective orders, juvenile detention hearings, family law emergencies, and quarantine and isolation cases. ➢ Throughout these challenging times, Maryland state courts have remained open to address matters to the extent allowed by the pandemic, providing due process and protecting constitutional rights. Chief Judge Barbera issued the first two administrative orders responding to changing conditions and capacities, authorizing Administrative Judges in trial courts to take appropriate measures to protect the safety of the public, justice partners, and court personnel. For Administrative Judges, these responsibilities were in addition to hearing cases, managing trial calendars and overseeing the administration of the court. ➢ In addition, since the onset of the pandemic, Administrative Judges have been responsible for enacting and adapting to over 80 Administrative Orders to ensure that the courts remained operational during this unprecedented pandemic. Collectively, they managed their courts through the pivot to remote proceedings, retrofitted their courtrooms with Plexiglas shields, distributed PPE and adjusted to each and every phase of the phased reopening thereby maintaining public safety while still remaining operational. No additional compensation is provided for these pandemic-related duties. ➢ During this initial period, the Judiciary procured truckloads of plexiglass, sanitizers, contactless thermometers, decals for social distancing, masks and other PPE. The first courthouse screening protocols were developed, the judiciary started to pivot to Skype video dockets and administrative procedures were developed to deal with the positive test results in courthouses. ➢ In the initial response to the pandemic, the Judiciary faced issues ranging from ensuring continuity of the drug and mental health courts to pausing electronic feeds to the MVA and CCU. By June 2020, the Judiciary fully embraced remote proceedings moving from Skype to Teams and Zoom for Government. In managing this remarkable pivot from all in-person proceedings to remote hearings, the Judiciary resolved security issues inherent in remote proceedings, effectively incorporated interpreters into these remote proceedings, and developed integrations with our recording systems. During the same time, the Administrative Office of the Courts and District Court Headquarters provisioned hundreds of laptops, webcams and microphones, and resolved issues with noticing of hearings and the text messaging notice of trial date program. ➢ Since June of 2020 through July of 2021, the Judiciary conducted more than 147,145 Zoom sessions, that involved 1,079,741 participants, and used over 49,001,723 Zoom minutes. In addition, the Judiciary’s Help Centers remained operational remotely throughout the pandemic, developing a knowledge base of resources, which include local rental assistance programs. Maryland Court Help Centers provided more than 150,000 instances of service to individuals without counsel between March of 2020 and August of 2021. More than 32,000 instances of service were for landlord-tenant matters. Town Hall meetings with the local bar associations were initiated to update changes to operations.
17
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs