Court Operations during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Baldwin, Julie Marie; Eassey, John M.; Brooke, Erika J.

doi:10.1007/s12103-020-09553-1

Cited by 65 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Coronavirus infection, which spread around the world, influenced the work of law enforcement and judicial systems, the crime situation in different countries, and became the "number 1" theme in the research of scientists [1][2][3][4][5][6]. In connection with the spread of coronavirus infection, operational activities and recommendations were needed to prevent it.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact and Consequences of COVID-19 on Criminal Proceedings in the Russian Federation

Dneprovskaya¹,

Каландаришвили²,

Nepomnyashchikh³

2020

Proceedings of the Research Technologies of Pandemic Coronavirus Impact (RTCOV 2020)

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In the present study, the authors draw attention to the impact and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on criminal proceedings. The authors consider what consequences the pandemic had on the work of the courts, the investigation officers, as well as the authorities executing the court decision on the detention of accused persons. Among the unfavourable consequences, which influenced the criminal proceedings, are the violation of the accused's right to attorney; the impossibility to provide the accused with qualified legal assistance due to the self-isolation of lawyers and quarantine measures prohibiting their entry into the pretrial detention centers; the refusal of investigation officers to postpone the investigative actions because of lawyer's default due to self-isolation; postponement of court proceedings and the extension of the term of the criminal trials and others. The authors suggest ways to solve the problem in case of recurrent situation, in particular, they propose to provide for provisions at the legislative level to regulate criminal proceedings in the conditions of pandemic, noting a multifaceted approach to solving the problem in order to balance the rights and legitimate interests of the accused and to comply with the norms of criminal procedure legislation. It is necessary to change the attitude towards the pretrial detention as a preventive measure and choose other alternative preventive measures in the context of a pandemic in order to unload the pretrial detention centers and protect the health of both the employees of the pretrial detention center and the persons detained there. Besides, it is necessary to convert criminal proceedings into electronic format and implement modern digital technologies, which allow to limit communication between participants of criminal proceedings as much as possible and provide exchange of procedural documents within the framework of electronic document circulation.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact and Consequences of COVID-19 on Criminal Proceedings in the Russian Federation

Dneprovskaya¹,

Каландаришвили²,

Nepomnyashchikh³

2020

Proceedings of the Research Technologies of Pandemic Coronavirus Impact (RTCOV 2020)

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“…However, replacing traditional litigation with telecommuting should not be applied as a general and perpetual rule [17]. For instance, the possibility of remote imposition of capital punishment has been hotly debated [18].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation of the trial jury in the period of the pandemic: Russian and foreign experience

et al. 2021

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The prerequisites for the research were formed by a complex collision between the legal nature of proceedings in the jury court and the standard sanitary and epidemiological restrictions. This collision was revealed in the course of the theoretical treatment of administration of justice in the pandemic period. The primary stage of judicial proceedings involving the participation of the jury was highlighted by the authors as a subject of the research – formation of the trial jury, where the said collision appears to be especially acute. The purpose of the study was to search for possible solutions to this collision; the objective – verification of the hypothesis stating that the pandemic situation has engendered a significant modification of the procedural form of trial jury selection. To resolve this problem, the normative approach, along with the method of legal comparative studies, was used: the criminal procedure legislation and the practice of its enforcement in the Russian Federation and a number of foreign countries was analysed. General logical methods were used: analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, abstraction and progression from the abstract to the concrete, etc. The result of the research is the identification of special approaches in the Russian and foreign models of court proceedings involving the participation of the jury, reflecting the intention to adjust the procedure of trial jury formation to the pandemic period requirements: telecommuted formation of the trial jury in full or in part; replacing verbal questioning of candidates to the jury with a written questionnaire; extending the questioning of jury candidates through the inclusion of specific issues concerning the epidemiological situation. The hypothesis proposed in the publication was confirmed, in particular, relative to the Russian court proceedings with the participation of the jury.

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“…Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. court system implemented a flurry of protocols to combat the spread of the virus coming into the court system. Examples of changes include the suspension of jury trials, adopting video technology to conduct court proceedings, and extensions to case deadlines (Baldwin et al, 2020). However, evaluating the effectiveness of these changes on infections or allied court impacts will be difficult without a comprehensive COVID-19 tracking system in the courts and among of courtroom actors.…”

Section: Courts and Sentencingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, in the Ohio judiciary system, Hrdinova and colleagues (2020) identified 64 orders for various local courts to postpone pretrial hearings and 65 orders limiting access to physical courts based on individuals' health symptoms. The concern here is that postponing proceedings increased already high court backlogs, interrupting individuals' rights to a speedy trial (Baldwin et al, 2020). While restrictions to court operations may be problematic, other strategies such as virtual teleconferences were adopted by many jurisdictions and may not have slowed down court proceedings in ways that other COVID-19 restrictions might have (Baldwin et al, 2020;McMillion, 2020;Rattey, 2020).…”

Section: Courts and Sentencingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic and Its Corresponding Data Boon: Issues With Pandemic-Related Data From Criminal Justice Organizations

Wallace

Walker

Nelson

et al. 2021

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

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Public organizations, including institutions in the U.S. criminal justice (CJ) system, have been rapidly releasing information pertaining to COVID-19. Even CJ institutions typically reticent to share information, like private prisons, have released vital COVID-19 information. The boon of available pandemic-related data, however, is not without problems. Unclear conceptualizations, stakeholders’ influence on data collection and release, and a lack of experience creating public dashboards on health data are just a few of the issues plaguing CJ institutions surrounding releasing COVID-19 data. In this article, we detail issues that institutions in each arm of the CJ system face when releasing pandemic-related data. We conclude with a set of recommendations for researchers seeking to use the abundance of publicly available data on the effects of the pandemic.

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Court Operations during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cited by 65 publications

References 9 publications

Impact and Consequences of COVID-19 on Criminal Proceedings in the Russian Federation

Impact and Consequences of COVID-19 on Criminal Proceedings in the Russian Federation

Formation of the trial jury in the period of the pandemic: Russian and foreign experience

The 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic and Its Corresponding Data Boon: Issues With Pandemic-Related Data From Criminal Justice Organizations

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