This past Tuesday was the first day of the "shelter in place" order in San Francisco, and probably my last day physically in the office for a while. (The "shelter in place" order permits businesses to conduct "Minimum Basic Operations" onsite, including "[t]he minimum necessary activities to maintain the value of the business's inventory, ensure security, process payroll and employee benefits, or for related functions" and "[t]he minimum necessary activities to facilitate employees of the business being able to continue to work remotely from their residences," both of which I was endeavoring to do for my firm on Tuesday. In addition, the order exempts "Essential Businesses," which includes "[p]rofessional services, such as legal or accounting services, when necessary to assist in compliance with legally mandated activities," whatever that means.)
Meanwhile, I had made a promise to try to finalize and file an amicus curiae letter in support of review in a pending Supreme Court case. (I'll do a post about that case later. UPDATE Apr. 14, 2020: See this blog post.) As of Tuesday, the Court's requirement for paper copies remained in place. So, we decided to mail the paper copies instead of sending a messenger, which we would normally do. Then, on Wednesday, the Supreme Court suspended the paper copies requirement. (May I say that this change is one I hope "sticks" after this is all over. The N.D. Cal. also suspended the requirement to deliver paper courtesy copies to chambers, yahoo!)
Things are changing so fast, and every day brings new orders, with no consistency (yet) across the state's judicial branch or among the federal district courts. All of us have pending cases in different courts and are wondering whether and when those matters will be directly affected by sua sponte court-ordered continuances or courthouse closures. Here are some useful links:
- "How COVID-19 Is Impacting the California Courts: Roundup of Services," The Recorder (Mar. 17, 2020). The Recorder appears to be regularly updating this story as new orders are issued. Also, the Recorder has lifted its paywall for all stories related to the crisis. Thank you to the Recorder for doing that.
- California Supreme Court's list of emergency orders. Evidently, the Supreme Court has to approve requests by the various Superior Courts for extensions and closures. As a result, this list is a useful tool, but personally I would recommend visiting the page of the particular Superior Court in question to double-check exactly what has been ordered.
- One Legal's "California court updates - Covid 19" page. The attorney service One Legal appears to be collecting useful updates on this page, with links.
Good luck to everybody in managing life during this strange period of time. A pandemic, really? That's for science fiction novels.
UPDATE Mar. 21, 2020: In addition to the links above, Consumer Attorneys of California has this resource, which seems to be accessible to members and non-members alike:
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