County courts struggling to keep up

Supreme Court says Doyle has power to adjust schedules to handle caseload

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Blair County's president judge may already have the authority to adjust court personnel duties, hours and schedules to deal with a higher-than-usual criminal caseload that developed during the COVID-19 pandemic and could increase if the pandemic worsens.

The state Supreme Court, in a ruling posted online Thursday, denied an application President Judge Elizabeth Doyle filed last week seeking the state court's declaration of a local judicial emergency through Dec. 31.

In her application, Doyle said the declaration would permit the county court system to expand duties and work hours of staff, to cancel and modify calendars, to cancel or suspend jury trials and to suspend or modify local court rules and procedures.

In its denial, the state court suggested that necessary staffing changes can be made without its permission. It also pointed out that Doyle "may have already made such changes pursuant to her inherent authority as president judge" by increasing the length of some court sessions.

On Aug. 2, Doyle kept her court in session until 10 p.m. to address every case on the pending trial list. It was the first time since May 2020 that every case on the trial list was called for review.

"I didn't start out that day planning to go to 10 o'clock and I don't think I'm going to do that again," Doyle said Thursday. "But we may want to go to 8 p.m."

As of July, the county court system had 1,754 active criminal cases.

That's about 500 more cases than the 1,276 the system counted in January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic started surfacing locally.

As for how the court system will expand work hours or staff duties, Doyle said that current efforts to dispose of criminal cases must continue.

"I have no desire to run late court sessions and to keep people late," Doyle said Thursday. "But I do have a desire to dispose of cases and we have to dispose of more. We can't keep operating by carrying around an extra 500 cases."

Recent statistics show that for much of 2020 and in the first quarter of this year, the amount of new criminal court cases being filed with the county has exceeded the amount disposed.

That trend reversed in May, when the courts disposed of 246 cases and received 210 new ones. In June, the exchange was almost flat with 197 new cases being filed and 190 resolved. In July, the courts resolved 245 cases and received 194 new ones.

Doyle's application for the local judicial emergency referenced conditions created by the ongoing pandemic and the uncertainty of how the new Delta variant might affect court operations.

In the letter filed with her application, she asked for the ability to cancel jury trials in the event the pandemic worsens, but added: "I have no desire to do so and will try to avoid the necessity."

Doyle and Judge Jackie Bernard presided this week over second and third jury trials to be completed this month in court. Next week, judges Daniel J. Milliron, Timothy M. Sullivan and Wade A. Kagarise are scheduled to preside over simultaneous jury trials. The following week, Milliron and Kagarise are slated again to preside over criminal jury trials.

"It's been all hands on deck," Doyle said.