LAKE PLACID — From court case backlogs to the advent of virtual court proceedings, the coronavirus pandemic has altered the landscape of local judicial system.

North Elba town Justice Dean Dietrich vividly remembers when the courts closed in March 2020, after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the “New York State on PAUSE” executive order that closed in-person operations for non-essential businesses. Dietrich showed up to court on March 19, 2020 to review his files for court the next day, and he said everything was ready to go. Then, everything “just stopped.”

–

Backlogs

–

The more than 13-month pause on in-person court sessions meant that court cases across the state stacked up, creating a backlog that many courts are still working through. This town’s courts were no different. The town added its traffic and civil court cases to the pandemic backlog, Dietrich said, though the town still handled cases by mail and addressed some criminal cases in a virtual court setting during the pandemic.

Dietrich said that the town court is “pretty much” through the backlog of cases created during the pandemic, though he said there’s been a slight “bump” in eviction cases recently.

Some court cases on the backlog still couldn’t be handled once courts reopened last May due to pandemic-related protections. There was a moratorium on eviction and foreclosure proceedings during the pandemic, which prevented those cases from moving through the courts until the moratorium was lifted on Jan. 15. Dietrich said the town had a couple of those cases “waiting in the wings.”

Village court Clerk Victoria Duffy said that the village court has caught up on its backlog of cases. Dietrich gave Duffy and town court Clerk Jennifer Hayes credit for working throughout the pandemic and keeping the courts up to date.

–

Virtual court

–

Although the pause on court operations lasted from March 2020 to May 2021, Dietrich said town courts stayed nearly as busy as ever during that time. Dietrich said Essex County outfitted a few county courts with teleconferencing capabilities and gave those courts the authority to handle arraignments throughout the county while the other courts remained closed. North Elba’s was one of those courts, he said.

Dietrich said that once the town’s virtual capabilities were up and running, the town was handling county cases along with the more “egregious, violent” cases in the town that required an order of protection or bail. Dietrich said there was an uptick in violent crimes like assaults and domestic violence cases during the pandemic, a trend that’s appeared in courts across the country.

The pandemic popularized virtual court proceedings, and Dietrich said some of those practices might stick around in the town court. While he said courts prefer to meet face-to-face with a public defender or attorney, the town’s court found that virtual accommodations could still be made with the client. For example, he said, there could be a situation where an attorney comes into court but the client appears virtually. As long as the client agrees to appear virtually and understands the circumstances, Dietrich said it’s legal.

“I think the legacy is that we use a little bit more of that than we used to, but we still try to do as much in person as possible,” he said.

In addition to serving as the town’s justice, Dietrich works as assistant justice for the village. He said both of the courts are generally two of the busiest courts in Essex County due to the municipalities’ comparatively high population and tourist traffic.

–

Bail reform

–

Along with the pandemic, state bail reform laws that were enacted across the state, beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, have also contributed to a shift in how local courts operate.

Dietrich said he’s seen a major downtick in cases that come across his desk because of the law, since the bail reform law limited cash bail for most misdemeanor and nonviolent felony cases.

The number of people subject to bail across the state has dropped by more than 10,000 since the bail reform law was enacted at the start of 2020; bail was set in just 14,545 cases last year, down from 24,657 in 2019, according to a recent report from the state Comptroller’s Office.

Dietrich also said that arraignment hearings for cases requiring bail or an order of protection, which sometimes called him into court in the middle of the night, are now required to take place between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. under the bail reform law. He said there’s a cell in Lewis, in the Essex County Jail, where people are now held until their arraignment.