After more than a year of waiting, the Livingston County Court System will resume jury trials starting June 14.
That trial, a drunken driving case, will take place in Livingston County Chief Judge Michael Hatty s courtroom.
He said he chose to do a drunken driving case as the first case back because those cases typically require fewer potential jurors, allowing for the court to work through any glitches in the jury selection process. I won t have to have more than 50 jurors in the jury pool, Hatty said. If it were a capital case, I would have to have 100 potential jurors.
Once selected, jurors will be seated on one side of the courtroom gallery facing the bench rather than in the designated juror box. This will allow for additional spacing, Hatty said.
The Livingston County Court System is now in phase two of its plan to return to full capacity, according to an ordered issued Friday. In phase two you have more accessibility to courtrooms and to the clerks office, Livingston County Chief Judge Michael Hatty said. You can have more in-person hearings in court with live evidence.
In phase one, courts were encouraged to handle matters virtually as much as possible, including filing of documents and appearances in court.
Parties can continue to appear via Zoom for court hearings in most cases depending on the what the case requires, Hatty said.