COVID-19: New York Courts Begin to Resume Hearing Non-Essential Matters—Remotely

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Seyfarth Synopsis: In an April 7, 2020 memorandum, New York’s Chief Administrative Judge laid out New York Courts’ plan to begin resume hearing non-essential matters, including asking judges to schedule remote conferences if helpful to advance the case or achieve resolution, permitting attorneys to request remote hearings for discovery issues or other concerns, and encouraging judges to issue rulings on fully-briefed motions.

In our previous article, COVID-19: New York Courts Go Virtual, we discussed how the Chief Judge of New York foreshadowed that courts statewide would begin to permit non-essential litigation to proceed virtually via Skype for Business. On April 7, 2020 New York’s Chief Administrative Judge issued a memorandum to all trial court justices and judges titled “Next Steps,” which lays out the Courts’ plans to go virtual for non-essential matters.[1]

In particular, the memorandum explains that “[n]ow that we have successfully transitioned to a virtual court system for handling essential matter, we are turning our attention to non-essential matters” including “tort . . . commercial, matrimonial, trusts and estates, felony and other categories of cases.”[2] The memorandum then lays out more specific plans, including:

• No new non-essential matters. The memorandum is clear that “[g]oing forward, the existing prohibition on the filing of new non-essential matters will continue.”[3]
• Remote access to non-essential pending matters via Skype or Telephone. Starting on Monday, April 13, remote access will become available for non-essential cases that are already pending with the Courts. The memorandum encourages judges to “review their case inventories to identify cases in which court conferences can be helpful”—including to “achieve[] a resolution of the case”—and notes that judges “can also schedule conferences at the request of the attorneys, and can be available during normal court hours to address discovery disputes and other ad hoc concerns.”[4] Any such conferences must be by Skype or telephone.[5]
• Redistribution of Caseloads. Courts with high-volume calendars, especially in and around New York City, are “reviewing existing calendars” to identify cases that can be re-assigned to judges with a lower volume of cases to conduct remote conferences, with the goal of “advanc[ing] the progress of the cases and facilitat[ing] their resolution.”[6]
• Deciding Fully Submitted-Motions. The memorandum encourages judges to “take this opportunity to resolve any backlogs of undecided motions and other matters in their case inventories,” explaining that the court system will be activating law departments in counties that have them to assist judges in drafting decisions.[7]

Finally, the memorandum explains that “[o]ther steps will be taken in the weeks ahead to further increase access to justice in non-essential matters,” and to expect further updates as that planning proceeds.[8]

Key Takeaways

While New York Courts are not yet fully re-opened to hear non-essential matters, the Chief Administrative Judge’s memorandum represents an important step towards resuming these matters. Now more than ever it is important for attorneys to carefully monitor their cases and any further updates from the Courts. New York practitioners must also make sure they are fully prepared to appear in their cases virtually, including having proper equipment, sufficient internet connectivity, and fluency in using Skype for Business.

 

[1] See Marks, J., “Next Steps” (April 7, 2020). As of the time of writing this article, Judge Marks’s memorandum has not yet been uploaded to the New York Courts’ website, but can be found on the New York State Bar Association’s website here.

[2] Id. at 1.

[3] Id. at 2.

[4] Id. (emphasis added).

[5] Id. Please see our article COVID-19: New York Courts Go Virtual for further information on Skype for Business, including links to tutorials.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.