Nebraska Courtroom Trials Temporarily Vanish as Legal System Adapts to Pandemic

The jury box in every courtroom in Nebraska apparently remained empty this week.

While county and district courts remained open, the specter of the coronavirus caused delays in many cases, while video conferencing replaced most routine appearances before judges.

These are not normal times for the justice system.

At the courthouse in Washington County, two sheriff deputies wearing neon-colored face masks stop anyone as soon as they step through the door. They run down a list of the same questions being asked emergency room these days: Have you traveled recently? Have you been in contact with anyone known to have the virus?

Other than all county business requires an appointment to be let through the doors, County Clerk Magistrate Vicki Kuhlmann said: "We are open as usual."

The interview was done on either side of the plastic barrier in place at the customer service counter.

"We'll serve you that to the best of our ability," she added.

Routine hearings in the courtroom go on as planned, she said, "except you don't have a lot of people. It can only be the defendant and their attorney."

"We've certainly eliminated any spectators."

Even the most traditional of attorneys and judges have been forced to embrace new technology.

"From just two weeks ago to now, you would see a vast difference." Cory Steel, the Nebraska State Court Administrator, told NET News.

This week, video conferencing transmitted much of the legal business across Nebraska, and that has "substantially" cut back on the number of appearances before judges.

Steel said, "a majority of our courts are down to hearing about 20 to 30% of their normal caseload."

He was not aware of a single jury trial conducted in the state this week, as defense attorneys filed to have their cases postponed on account of the public health emergency

Douglas County, with the busiest courthouse in Nebraska, watched its caseload plummet. Steel had received a summary of the day's activity on Friday.

On the same date in February, one judge saw 71 cases pass through the courtroom in one day. Today only 13 matters were heard. Another court typically handling 50 cases a day, did not have a single appearance before the judge.

Local jurisdictions have much discretion in which cases get priority status. Court Clerk Vicki Kuhlmann said, in Washington County, the judges recognize legal matters involving the safety of children are of the highest importance.

"What if you have kids that don't have food in their home? What if those kids have to be taken out of the home?" she said, citing the types of cases heard in county court when it might be necessary to "get services put in place that would help them."

On the other hand, "those parents have a right to get themselves into court right away to get their kids back if that's the situation."

With more and more people predicted to fall ill, the county and district courts have begun to split their staff into two teams. Each week, half will report for duty, the other half will work from home.

So that way, you know, if somebody does come into the cordon is infected, we don't infect everybody.

One example of the new flexibility came from Douglas County District Court Judge Horacio Wheelock. The judge, taking no chances, self-quarantined after traveling to Europe. For two weeks, he presided over his court in downtown Omaha from his dining room table. Other parties in cased being heard gathered at the courthouse and addressed the judge on a laptop perched on the bench.

Courts all over Nebraska are attempting to take the unique circumstances in stride.

"We're just working with the circumstances we have and the situation and going forward, said Kuhlmann, the magistrate clerk based in Blair.

While the circumstances of the pandemic are unprecedented, the courts in Washington County are familiar with responding to an emergency. In 2019 the great floods forced the entire enterprise to relocate for a period to the courthouse in Burt County.