A Message from Chief Justice Charles T. Canady

Justice Charles T. Canady

This year will be remembered as one dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our minds will call up images of social distancing, personal protective equipment, and bottles of hand sanitizer. We will remember the uncertainty and the frustration.

I will also think of the video conference protocols we all got used to, the simple joy of seeing a colleague in person after a long hiatus, and the indomitable efforts of Florida’s judges, courts staff, and justice partners who persevered to continue to provide access to justice under challenging circumstances.

Largely through remote proceedings, trial courts in Florida disposed of more than 2.7 million cases in Fiscal Year 2020-21. Those remote proceedings were necessary as courthouses remained limited for in-person proceedings for much of the year while spread of the coronavirus ebbed and flowed and the tools at our disposal to combat it increased.

For more than a year we took steps to safely operate the judicial branch using safeguards dictated by changing health conditions and evolving best practices. Amending those orders reflected the evolving state of the pandemic while maintaining appropriate safeguards as we moved toward the time when all Floridians eligible for vaccination had the opportunity to become fully vaccinated.

In May 2021, I issued administrative orders to end health screenings required for entry to courthouses and to end the general requirement that masks be worn throughout courthouses in the state.

The judicial branch is different than private businesses or even other branches of government in that people must come to our courthouses when they are summoned. You might say we offer people invitations they cannot refuse. For that reason, we remained cautious about in-person hearings and continued to conduct remote court proceedings for those events that could be fairly held that way.

Even then, Florida’s courts prepared for a return to more normal operations and put in place a plan of action to address pandemic-generated caseloads.

From the beginning of the pandemic we have recognized the need to prepare for its aftermath. We tracked case filings and dispositions and projected what is to come.

There are positive outcomes to report. Our response to the pandemic will forever change the way Florida’s courts operate. Our new ways of doing things have been welcomed by attorneys and are very popular with many of those who come to the courts.

Florida’s courts have been innovative in their responses to the public-health emergency and will continue to be so as pandemic-generated caseloads are addressed.

I authorized five remote civil jury trial pilots over the summer of 2020. We recognize delays in jury trials will require special focus and the three-year pandemic recovery plan proposed in our legislative budget request, and subsequently approved and funded by the Legislature. It contemplates the resource allocations necessary to address jury trials as well as other proceedings once the threat of COVID-19 has lessened.

Justices Canady and Labarga at the first in-person oral arguments since March 2020

The members of the Workgroup on the Continuity of Court Operations and Proceedings During and After COVID-19 have put in a tremendous amount of effort to advise me as I made decisions about the best course through waters none of us had navigated before. The work of chief judges in jurisdictions all around the state focused on solutions and relied on their colleagues on the bench and their support from staff to serve the people who come to courts looking for help.

Florida’s courts remained open during the pandemic. We continued working. We remained true to our mission and we look forward to the day when our focus can be squarely on the provision of justice alone. This Florida State Courts 2020-21 Annual Report tells a part of the story of this year and recognizes a portion of the effort undertaken by so many to keep the work of the courts moving forward.