After the coronavirus pandemic struck early this year, New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) President Kimberly A. Yonta established the Pandemic Task Force to examine and address the issues facing the legal community during the worst public health crisis to hit the country in more than a century.
Chaired by former NJSBA President Thomas H. Prol, the task force’s five committees brought together thought leaders from across the profession to study questions including how to safely reopen law firms, adjust courthouse operations, and resume jury trials, as well as to examine the impact of the pandemic on substantive areas of law and how access to justice has been affected.
“The NJSBA Pandemic Task Force has been a leading voice in making recommendations about best practices as law firms reopened for clients and as the courts reopened for in-person and virtual hearings,” Yonta said.
“Most importantly, the task force continues to provide practical guidance to make sure that the constitutional rights of the accused and the citizen’s right to have a case heard in court are never forsaken for efficiency in the name of justice. This is exactly the kind of practical help that demonstrates the NJSBA is a lawyer’s best partner during these uncertain times,” she said.
Prol said the task force has been an invaluable resource to the legal community.
“In these troubled times, we sought to create a ‘roadmap to resilience’ with clear, precise and informed guidance to bring calmness to the chaos impacting the legal profession,” he said.
“We also took seriously our obligation to advocate on health and safety issues for attorneys and judges. I am so grateful for the selfless work of these better angels of the legal profession who make up the NJSBA Pandemic Task Force. Through their volunteer efforts, they helped ease the struggle of so many of our brothers and sisters in the law who are in need of this help. The committee members represent the best of us and our commitment to community and the rule of law,” Prol said.
Here’s a roundup of the task force’s recent activities:
- The Committee on the Resumption of Jury Trials has released several reports and statements about the selection of juries and conducting both criminal and civil trials in a manner that accounts for the health and safety of all participants and preserves the litigants’ constitutional rights. At the invitation of the Judiciary, it recently provided a series of recommendations—formed after researching options taking place around the country—that would accommodate civil jury trials in a virtual environment, while also ensuring that those trials are fair, just and produce a credible result.
- The Courthouse Operations Committee is anticipating creating a clearinghouse of information that will be available this winter to the legal community about practices and procedures in each courthouse around the state.
- The Law Firm Opening and Operations Committee released nine reports that are available on the NJSBA website: Health Screening and Monitoring; Law Office Workplace Logistics; Best Practices Regarding EEO Issues; Multi-Tenanted Facilities; Considerations for Insurance Policyholders; Whistleblower Complaints; Communications Strategies; Legal Liability Considerations; and Changes to Handbooks, Policies and Procedures. The committee’s members are holding educational seminars to help the legal community navigate issues raised in the reports.
- The Practice of Law Committee anticipates releasing a report in the near future that will address general issues facing various legal practice areas, how these areas have been affected by the pandemic, and what pandemic-era procedures should be kept in place going forward.
- The Access to Justice Committee is preparing resources for public participants in virtual court proceedings.
In addition, since the earliest days of the pandemic the NJSBA has collected information and resources for the legal profession at njsba.com and created a free webinar series with practice-specific guidance and practical tips. The NJSBA has also advocated with elected officials to address the challenges the pandemic has presented to lawyers and their clients. For example, the NJSBA was instrumental in gaining passage of a bill that allows for remote notary acknowledgements, the organization provided recommendations to the chief judge of the Division of Workers’ Compensation about a phased-in approach to reopening those courts, and it urged state and federal officials to call on the Executive Office of Immigration Review to allow non-detained hearings at Newark Immigration Court to be conducted by videoconference until the health and safety of participants could be adequately protected.