A criminal suspect makes his preliminary appearance in Lewis County Superior Court via video call.
Lewis County Superior Court has updated its dockets through May 4 to limit the number of people walking through its doors.
According to a press release, superior court will be rescheduling out-of-custody matters including settlement conferences on family law cases, family law motions, guardianship cases, civil dockets, dependency dockets, domestic violence dockets and child support dockets through May 4.
Superior court assistant administrator Paula Willey explained that the rescheduling of domestic violence dockets does not mean you can’t still file for a protection order and get a temporary protection order until hearings resume.
“Those are being done by paperwork coming through the clerk’s office which is reviewed by the judge and then the parties and being notified when their court date is and then the paperwork gets processed to be served on the other individual that is restrained,” superior court administrator Paula Wiley said.
No trials of any kind will be held through May 4 and if it is a criminal case the prosecutor’s office is putting it on the criminal docket to reschedule it, according to Willey.
Activity that is still allowed in superior court includes:
Juvenile cases have been reduced to only necessary hearings and will be heard over the phone.
In-custody preliminary appearances will still be heard via video call.
For family law motions, if there is an emergent case, permission is required from a judge to have a hearing and appear telephonically.
