Entering a courtroom in early 2020 was not so different from entering one a century earlier.
But the pandemic forced change even in the most rigid of American systems.
Jury selections were held not in the Lewis County Law and Justice Center, but in the grandstands at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds and in the old RE Bennett elementary school building. Defendants appeared in court virtually via Webex. Moratoriums were put on Washington’s 60-day maximum between arraignment and trial, allowing the county to suspend trials until they were once again safe to hold in person.
As with most systems that underwent major changes due to COVID-19, there have been positives and negatives, according to Lewis County Superior Court Judge J. Andrew Toynbee.
Decisions were made based on Lewis County Public Health & Social Services’ weekly COVID-19 updates. When case numbers and hospitalizations were up, jury trials were suspended to prevent a gathering of 85 people in close proximity, Toynbee said.
“We’re not inviting people to come in. We’re compelling people to come in for jury service, right? And if we’re gonna make them come here, then we have an obligation to make sure they’re safe,” he said. “And knowing what is and isn’t safe is a moving target, it seems. We do our best to be as protective as possible and take those things into consideration.”
Fortunately, COVID-19 case totals have been trending downward in Lewis County for weeks, with just 14 new cases reported in the county in the most recent reporting week.
On Tuesday, Superior Court Administrator Susie Palmateer emailed the county’s Chief of Internal Services, Steve Wohld, about suspending the memorandum of understanding between the courts and the fairgrounds for offsite jury selection and orientation sites.
In the email, which was provided to The Chronicle, Palmateer added that District and Superior Court judges will continue to use RE Bennett for the foreseeable future. Toynbee said the logistics of organizing a jury in the grandstands were problematic, especially for those who are hard of hearing.
Some of the changes in the courts will remain long after the restrictions, including allowing defendants and attorneys to appear in court remotely for certain hearings.
“Instead of coming all the way in for an omnibus hearing which probably lasts 35 seconds, they can appear via video and sometimes via phone,” Toynbee said.
This has reduced stress on security staff while preventing more spread of disease.
Aside from the safety aspects, the benefits of remote hearings are twofold for defendants, Toynbee said. They reduce attorney bills and allow defendants “better access to justice.”
“I think we’ve learned that we don’t have to be tied to a certain way of doing things just because that’s the way we’ve always done it,” Toynbee said. “Now, I think the challenge is figuring out what is the healthy way to grow into this technology.”
But Toynbee also hopes some of the new standards will be overturned, especially for sentencing hearings. Having people in person, or at least seeing people’s faces without masks, makes a big difference, he said.
“If you have a case in court, it’s very, very important to you. So the decisions we (judges) make are very important. And oftentimes it helps when we can make a connection with the person. A defendant has a right, and it might be their only one time that they get to say to a judge: ‘This is what I think is appropriate for a sentence’ or ‘this is why I did what I did,’ or ‘this is why I’m sorry for what I did.’ That’s a really, really important moment,” Toynbee said.
Toynbee added that sentencing hearings are a judge’s opportunity to say what they hope will have a positive impact on the defendant.
“I’ll never give up on trying to make that difference and trying to say something that might get through to somebody, even though I know that I might not be successful all the time,” he said.
