Seeing the Justice System through the Crisis

07/23/2020

The Hon. Lisa Van Amburg ('75) helps guide the Missouri Bar's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coming out of retirement less than two years after it began to co-chair the Missouri Bar’s COVID-19 Task Force hadn’t exactly been what Hon. Lisa Van Amburg (’75) had in mind when she stepped down from the bench in 2018. The former appellate judge for the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District enjoys being of service nonetheless.

Van Amburg along with fellow alumnus Hon. James Welsh (’75), former appellate judge for the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District, received the phone call from bar president Tom Bender in early March. Both judges were equipped with not only past judicial experience but past practice experience, enabling them to understand the enormity of the situation at hand.

“Mostly I think it’s because we’re retired and have the time to work on it,” Van Amburg said. “It’s been a pleasure for me to work with Judge Welsh and with the wonderful attorneys and practitioners on this task force.”

The Task Force’s Charge

The COVID-19 Task Force was formed with the purpose of making recommendations to the members of the state bar, to the Missouri Supreme Court and to Governor Parson about how to adjust and help the justice system survive this crisis. It is comprised of about 25 people divided into three working groups: civil litigation, criminal law, and a more general group that encompasses issues like estate planning and problems unique to the elderly.

Many people who walk into the courthouse are summoned there, so it’s extremely important that they feel before they walk in that there’s protection, and it’s very important that we provide those protections."

 

The task force already has addressed the challenge of in-person notarization requirements, consulting on legislation that would allow people signing wills, for example, to notarize their wills remotely. It is also working on formalizing guidelines for judges conducting proceedings virtually, as well as on making recommendations to the court about how jury trial operations can be safely phased back in.

“Many people who walk into the courthouse are summoned there, so it’s extremely important that they feel before they walk in that there’s protection, and it’s very important that we provide those protections,” Van Amburg said. “There are many rural courthouses in Missouri that I just don’t think have the facilities to conduct jury trials during this crisis. You couldn’t think about putting people in a jury box. Some courthouses don’t even have janitors.”

These courthouses may have to move jury trials to high school gymnasiums or college facilities that have larger spaces, she said.

“We’re just going to have to make adjustments, such as questioning people in small groups in criminal matters,” Van Amburg continued. “You can’t shackle prisoners together in guilty pleas. A lot of new paradigms need to be put into place.”

A Diverse Court System

The task force isn’t left to come up with these solutions on its own; its members have been consulting best practices elsewhere through the National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit that seeks to improve judicial administration in the U.S. and throughout the world, as well as learning from states on the East and West Coasts that have had to develop similar plans earlier.

The task force also must consider the diverse needs and resources of the various circuits within Missouri’s court system; Van Amburg noted that resources are great in the metropolitan areas compared to the rural areas, so the solutions are not going to be one-size-fits-all.

An example: one of the task force’s recommendations is that when the courthouses are reopened, there will be security at the doors to screen people for possible infection. In the metropolitan areas, the municipal governments can help fund tools like thermometers, masks and hand sanitizer, but in the rural areas, there is not money readily available, nor is there the likelihood of being able to social distance.

“So members [of the bar] need to keep in touch, and the task force would love to hear from them about some of the unique problems in their courthouses,” Van Amburg said. “We’re hoping for the best, but I don’t know that our task force will be dissolving anytime in the summer, at least while there are so many predictions that the virus is going to come back in the fall, so I’m thinking it’s a long-term project.”

Bright Lights

There is some good news on the horizon.

Van Amburg said she is heartened by seeing the commitment of the Missouri Bar and the Missouri Supreme Court to not only its members but to those who access the justice system, in making sure that resuming ‘normal’ operations does not risk their health and safety.

There’s thinking going on about people who have traditionally not had equal access.” 

 

“The other bright light is that some of these changes in terms of operations are going to be improvements to access to justice,” she continued. “We’ve seen the U.S. Supreme Court go remote and look what happened — a lot of people tuned in to the proceedings for the first time. Much of the video hearings going on now actually have been going on for a couple years; in probate court in the City of St. Louis, the probate commissioners have been conducting hearings with, for example, people in mental institutions to determine guardianship issues. But now it’s becoming the new normal.

“There’s also more consideration now for self-represented litigants who have no access to the courthouse and for people incarcerated, as well,” she said. “They shouldn’t lose their civil rights when they go to prison or cannot access the courthouse for other reasons; many do not have computers. The courts are now thinking about how we need to have a place where they can access computers and be present for these hearings. There’s thinking going on about people who have traditionally not had equal access.”

The new coronavirus, while illuminating these longstanding problems, is simultaneously serving as an equalizer of sorts.

“Everyone’s thinking about access to justice and what it means, and they don’t think it’s just a problem for disadvantaged people,” Van Amburg said. “We’re all in the same boat of understanding that inequality of wealth and access to justice is a threat to all.

“And it’s a problem we could all have – just like the disease, it doesn’t see economic boundaries, and access-to-justice issues now are everyone’s challenge. The justice system is the one system in our democracy in which the doors need to be literally and figuratively open to everyone, or else the democracy fails. This COVID-19 has raised our awareness of that, and that’s a good thing.”

— By Maria Tsikalas