Court Recovery Task Force

On May 8, 2020, the Board for Judicial Administration (BJA) approved the creation of the Court Recovery Task Force to address court impacts from COVID-19. The BJA Court Recovery Task Force will assess current court impacts from COVID-19; develop and implement strategies to ensure that every court can provide fair, timely, and accessible justice; and provide recommendations for ongoing court operations and recovery after the public health emergency subsides.

Tasks to Address

The Court Recovery Task Force will address the following tasks:

1. Assess court impacts from COVID-19 and address court needs as they arise.
2. Identify key court functions impacted by COVID-19.
3. Review and compile key court responses, community impacts, and partner responses to COVID-19.
4. Identify strategies to recover key court functions and adapt to changing needs.
5. Identify lessons learned and future policy, practice, and court technology considerations, opportunities for improvement, and promising practices.
6. Develop and implement recommendations for recovery efforts.

Guiding Principles

The task force shall:

1. Prioritize the fair, efficient, and safe provision of court services that fulfill constitutional and statutory mandates to protect individual liberties, guarantees, and freedoms.
2. Promote and support legal and policy reforms that advance race equity & racial justice, including identifying actions that transcend traditional divisions between the civil, criminal, and juvenile justice systems to eliminate systemic racism.
3. Develop plans and proposals that address access to justice for all despite physical, language, or financial barriers, including tools to assist unrepresented parties.
4. Work with judicial branch stakeholders and coordinate with the other branches of government, state and local, to follow constitutional and statutory mandates that place a priority on deadlines to resolve certain types of cases.
5. Understand that Washington is not a unified court system and individual courts have varying needs, resources, and timetables. Consequently, a statewide solution that allows flexibility for specific measures and implementation timing is important to the recovery process.
6. Encourage courts to continue to use and, where appropriate, expand technology of all types to facilitate alternatives to face-to-face hearings in open court that contribute to a high density of people in courthouses, while maintaining access to justice in the face of inequitable access to technology.
7. Encourage courts to continue to identify innovative ways to expand capacity and ensure social distancing to safely meet the needs of the courts, court staff, and members of the public.
8. Collect available data and feedback from various stakeholders to inform decisionmaking and identify ongoing data needs for assessing performance.