More Courts Prepare To Reopen Across Connecticut

CONNECTICUT — The state's Judicial Branch has announced it will be reopening four courthouses, and expanding the hours and days of operations of all others.

Effective June 29, the Judicial District courthouses in Danbury, Milford and Stamford, and at the Geographical Area No. 11 courthouse in Danielson, are back open for business.

This expansion will bring the number of open courthouses to 17: the Supreme and Appellate courts, 13 Superior Court locations and two juvenile court locations. As such, one Superior Court courthouse will be open in each of the 13 Judicial Districts.

The Judicial Branch also plans to expand its hours and days of operations along this schedule:

• Starting the week of June 15, all open courthouse locations will be open each day, Monday through Friday. The hours for the public will be Monday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Starting the week of June 29, the Danbury, Milford, Stamford and Danielson courthouses will be open to the public. Consistent with all other open courthouse locations, public hours will be Monday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Starting the week of July 6, open courthouse locations will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Most work within the open court locations will continue to focus on those most pressing
matters, according to a news release from the Branch. These include criminal arraignments for defendants held on bond, domestic violence cases, restraining orders, emergency child custody matters, juvenile detention hearings, and all other emergency matters.

Anyone entering a court facility is required to wear a face mask covering their mouth and nose. In addition, to allow for adequate social distancing in a courthouse, courtroom or in the lobby, the number of people may be limited.

"We continue to plan for increasing expansion of the Branch's physical footprint and all
business operations in a way that places personal safety of the public, the bar and employees at
the forefront while also balancing the requirement to continue to provide expanded access,"
Chief Court Administrator Patrick L. Carroll III said.

In addition to readying brick-and-mortar reopenings, the courts have been busy online.

"In just a few weeks' time, family court has held over 600 remote status or settlement conferences and disposed of more than 300 divorce cases remotely. Civil court has conducted close to 1,000 remote events and has ruled on more than 7,000 short calendar matters. Juvenile Court is holding remote detention hearings each day of operation and reviewing permanency plans remotely," Carroll said.

The Branch continues to expand the handling of criminal matters as well. Judges will begin conducting remote pretrial conferences on June 8. Using web conferencing technology, the court will conduct remote pretrial hearings with a judge, a prosecutor and the defense attorney to see if an agreement may be reached. The initial focus of these remote pretrials will be on cases involving defendants in custody. If an agreement is reached, the case will be docketed for plea and/or disposition. Future plans for the processing of criminal matters include pleas/sentencings of incarcerated defendants.

"When appropriate, these hearings can be heard via video conferencing at correctional
facilities," Carroll said. "Our criminal matters unit is working closely with the Department of Correction to ensure there are time slots available for each courthouse. DOC has acquired technology that will allow the agency to open an additional hearing room at certain high volume correctional facilities.”