Minn.: Court in the time of COVID Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Brainerd Dispatch
When Crow Wing County Attorney Don Ryan assumed his elected post 26 years ago, he did not foresee a time when nearly all of his office’s court appearances would take place in the virtual realm.
For the past five months, however, the vast majority of court proceedings — those considered a high enough priority to not be suspended entirely — have occurred this way, with attorneys holed up in their offices and clients appearing from any number of locations, including in their vehicles while on lunch break.
Virtual court appearances are just one of the impacts on Minnesota’s court system born from the necessities of attempting to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus that rocked the globe this spring. Changes are underway to case scheduling and the physical setup of courtrooms and other public spaces in the judicial center to accommodate social distancing recommendations of both state and federal public health officials.