MACON, Ga. — Attorneys in Central Georgia have almost gone an entire year without trying a case inside a courtroom.
As months go by, lawyers say it is exciting to think about going back in person, but it's also concerning.
Every month, a new emergency order hits the table.
Baldwin County solicitor general Skye Gess said, "When one expires, here comes the next one."
Both the solicitor general and a Macon criminal defense attorney say it wasn't a surprise to see the 11th statewide judicial emergency order.
Defense lawyer Frank Hogue said, "I knew it was coming, but I am a little surprised by it."
On Sunday, the Chief Justice of Georgia's Supreme Court extended the emergency order, but wrote in-person hearings could resume next month.
Hogue also said, "That concerns me, because I don't know in a month that the pandemic will have subsided enough to where it is safe to congregate in a courthouse."
Gess said, "I know there is a lot of concern because we still are seeing a lot of COVID-19 cases, but excited to be able to start the process."
Both say there is growing concern about masks being worn inside the courtroom, because that means judges can only see jurors' and other people's eyes.
"It's just not conducive to the sort of interpersonal relationship, you have to be able to develop to read jurors and to understand them," said Hogue.
Hogue says he doesn't know how they are going to gather and select jurors, "and then hang out together for a week or two, or 6 weeks, in the case of my death penalty cases, and somehow escape COVID." Hogue said, "I just don't see it."
However, in the meantime, courtrooms are still fine tuning policies and procedures for going back in-person.
Gess said, "Kind of looking at other courts as they go for feedback and recommendations, and certainly we are not going to jeopardize the safety."
Even though court officials hope to get people back inside courtrooms soon, they say courts may remain backlogged for months, maybe years.