Law in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 2

Under the state, county, and city stay-at-home orders, legal services are deemed essential, so I am permitted to leave my home. I am trying not to abuse that privilege, however. Moreover, I decided that it would be easier for me to manage working from one location (home) than it would be to try to juggle work in two locations (home and office). I do not want to lug equipment, files, and supplies to and fro every day for a month or more. Also, Murphy's Law being what it is, whatever you need will inevitably be at the other location. I am venturing out for work only when it is absolutely necessary.

As I review my out-of-the-office needs, I realize how much technology has relieved me of the need to leave my office. I can do most of my banking online. I already order most of my office supplies online. I can even search titles online from the Register of Deed's web site. A drive-through bank run is sometimes necessary. Local office supply stores are open if I happen to have an immediate need. The Register of Deeds is open if I need to record original documents. But, I have eliminated most routine errands already for the sake of efficiency.

The major task that I cannot accomplish from my office is communicating with clients who are in jail. Although the jail has suspended visits from the general public, attorneys are allowed to visit with their clients. I already bundle all of my jail visits into one trip for efficiency, and this approach now has the added benefit of reducing exposure, in both directions. Outside visitors like me probably pose more danger to the jail population than vice versa. Given the special health challenges of a jail setting, I think that we outside visitors should be especially careful to reduce our potential impact.

The court house is where I spend most of my time out of the office. While the District Attorney's office continues to be open, I have reduced the frequency of my trips to see Assistant DAs, relying more on email instead. I generally think that face-to-face communication is more effective than email, but this is one area that has had to change due to the virus. Really, the only times that I need to be at the court house now are for the few hearings that have not been canceled, and to physically file court documents. I wonder if this shutdown experience will prompt the court system to speed up its adoption of electronic filing.

Other lawyers will have different experiences than mine. A real estate lawyer will have to make multiple trips to the Register of Deeds. A civil litigator will have to file documents continually at the Clerk of Court. Or, at least, their paralegals will have to. With some forethought, however, lawyers can adjust and continue to deliver legal services.

Law in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 1

Suddenly, a lot of things have changed, the practice of law included. How lawyers will respond to this challenge will depend upon their practice area. For example, I typically spend a great deal of my time appearing in District Court: three to five days on the average week. Court hearings are one of the areas most affected by the current situation.

On March 13, North Carolina shut down almost all court for 30 days, from March 16 to April 16. However, some hearings have to be held because of constitutional or statutory guarantees. For example, I have a felony plea scheduled this week because my client is in custody. I have also had a few juvenile delinquency and domestic violence hearings during this shutdown. This not-quite-complete shutdown has prompted me to develop a flexible response.

For the cases that will go forward, I call or email my clients to make sure that they know that their cases are still on for hearing. Generally, hearings are scheduled for a particular day, and everybody shows up and waits their turn. Now, however, hearings are scheduled at specific time slots so that parties and lawyers do not mix in the court rooms. The hearings themselves go forward more or less exactly as they would in normal times.

The cases that have to be rescheduled are a little more involved. I start by calling or emailing my clients to make sure that they know their cases will not be held as previously scheduled. If I already have a new court date, then I also inform them of that. If I do not have a new court date, then what I tell them next depends upon what kind of case they have.

For many types of cases, my clients should receive printed notices in the mail. The clerk of court should mail notices for criminal and child abuse cases. The Department of Social Services should mail notices for child support cases. (For civil cases, the attorneys are responsible for recalendering hearings and noticing the opposite attorney.) However, people move and mail gets lost, so I am not relying solely on that method for ascertaining new court dates. For criminal cases, I have been telling my clients how they can sign up for text and email notifications from nccourts.gov. I have also been using nccourts.gov myself to get notified of the new court dates.

Developing a protocol to keep track of over 30 rescheduled court dates and to keep clients informed has been the most challenging part of this situation to date.

Finally, before I put away each client's file, I ask myself: Can I do anything else to move this case forward? With court hearings off the table, other possible solutions present themselves. I have negotiated new criminal pleas since it appears that grand juries will not meet until May or June. Consent orders in civil cases start to look more attractive in comparison to delaying hearings until the latter half of the year.

There is more to the practice of law than court hearings, of course, and I will address these additional aspects in further articles.