Collaboration to protect health: Epidemics and the California Courts

In a pandemic the responsibility of the court system to assure the administration of justice continues, moreover courts will have the additional burden of assuring that legal protections are afforded to communities and individuals who may be affected by actions of state and local health authorities. In California, public health officers can “take measures as may be necessary to prevent the spread of…disease or occurrence of additional cases” under their jurisdiction including isolation and quarantine. A novel collaboration between the Judicial Council of California Administrative Office of the Courts' (AOC) Emergency Response and Security Unit and the California Department of Health Services' Division of Communicable Disease Control and Office of Legal Services was initiated for the development of the AOC guidance “Epidemics and the California Courts.” This first of its kind effort highlights the need for courts to collaboratively plan for circumstances in which the response of public health officials to a disease outbreak may affect courthouse operations. Given the importance of maintaining essential court functions during an epidemic and to avoid any potential conflict over the scope of health measures that may be taken in such times, it is critical to ensure that both courts and public health are aware of their respective core functions and their dependencies on each other, and which resources must remain available to enable both to carry out these functions. If both can reach understanding on such issues in advance of outbreaks, interruptions in court operations can be avoided.