Michigan has what is called a One Court of Justice. However, that doesn't mean the courts all follow a unified plan and follow the same procedure. Not at all. Each one has their own peculiarities and own procedures that vary immensely.
Take how they are handling Covid for example.
37th District Court in Warren is not just hybrid, but at times the judges demand people appear in person for a hearing or a conference, which sucks as something that takes 10 minutes now takes an hour plus of drive time, sitting around in court waiting to be called in a courtroom with insufficient seats when you could be doing it by Zoom far more efficiently.
There are magic pieces of plexiglass abounding, but tons of gaps in the plexiglass and it is far more for show than for it to be virus no-go. No requirement for wearing masks and no temperature taking or anything else.
Then there's the 50th District Court in Pontiac.
Live hearings there are just not on and you cannot get within 6 feet of the building. No kidding.
Went there to pickup a processed filing as told to do so by the court staff, and the court officer stopped me six feet from the door of the building, I had to and did have a mask on, he asked who I was and what I wanted. After I replied he then kicked over a post office mail carton that had my filing inside. I picked up my filing and kicked the box back to him. Yes, really.
2 courts. Less than an hour away as the car drives, and completely different responses and protocols. You really don't know what you're going to get at any particular court.
Personally I'm finding Zoom a great time saver for myself and my clients - no need to drive, find parking, or wait in a crowded courtroom when instead you can get on Zoom at your appointed time and be done fast. Hopefully they clue in to the efficiencies and permit Zoom usage to continue and the courts all get on board with one protocol so we know what the heck we're dealing with.
4 comments:
Hope you like the Chinese watching everything you do on Zoom, and ALL the data that is passed going directly to their hackers...
Old NFO: Chinese would likely be bored silly watching the court proceedings. The hearings are all open to the public anyways, so nothing really secret goes on in any courtroom.
Do realize that "temperature taking" is pretty much a useless gesture....the error bars are so wide so as to make it completely ineffective as a method of determining infection. stress, racial makeup, outside air temp, level of fitness, all contribute to the person's surface temp (usually measured at the face)....either you get lots of false positives, or you set the limit so high so as to be useless.
Health Security Theater...much like the TSA.
Yeah - my normal temp is about 97.5. So 98.6 is possibly the beginnings of a fever. And I live in the sauna that is known as a D.C. area summer.
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