By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press
COLOMBIA (AP) – South Carolina’s chief jurist has again canceled personal hearings, saying he is doing so due to the “continuous increase” in COVID-19 cases across the state.
“It is prudent, once again, to make changes in the operations of the circuit, family, inventory and master-in-equity courts to protect those who work within the courts, as well as those who use the courts,” state Supreme President of the court, Don Beatty, wrote in an order dated Wednesday and posted online.
In his order, Beatty suspended all personal hearings that were due to begin statewide on or after January 11. Family and circuit court judges can still hear emergency matters in person, such as bail bonds, court orders and protective custody or situations of domestic violence.
This is the second stoppage of most face-to-face operations by the state court. In mid-March, Beatty ordered all face-to-face court deals to be closed as part of a broad effort to stem the spread of the pandemic.
Judges at the circuit and family court levels subsequently conducted thousands of online hearings via WebEx. The high court itself made its first virtual oral allegation in May, in a case about pandemic access to voting issues.
South Carolina’s COVID-19 rate almost led the country in July, but fell in late summer. In September, Beatty allowed the courts to reopen, with reservations. Judges may still decide to use remote communication technology for hearings at their discretion, without the consent of the parties involved or their lawyers.
At the state’s first jury trial since the closure of the entire system, Beatty himself sat in the back of a Laurens County courthouse in August, while a man was on trial for murder related to a stabbing death in 2018. In addition masks were required, jurors were spread out and a glass shield was placed around the witness stand. Only three spectators could sit in a row, outside the families of the defendant and the victim.
But this week, Beatty again canceled personal procedures, citing the state’s continued increase in the number of positive tests, as well as “the expectation of the medical community and experts that the number of positive cases will continue to increase in the near future.” hearings and trials without a jury can still go on virtually, he noted, writing that “the use of remote communication technology to conduct proceedings is encouraged”.
According to the Department of Health and Environmental Control, about one in three people tested in South Carolina tests positive for COVID-19. The goal at the beginning of the pandemic was to try to have only one positive test out of 20.
As of Thursday, state health officials have reported more than 310,000 positive tests for coronavirus in South Carolina and 5,189 deaths.