Chief Justice Charles Canady issued a new administrative order June 15, 2020, extending the term through the end of the year of a Workgroup charged with recommending ways for a staged return to full court operations during the coronavirus pandemic. The Workgroup’s mission is to find ways for courts to operate as fully as possible during each stage of the pandemic. The workgroup is chaired by Circuit Judge Lisa Taylor Munyon from the Orlando area.

Under the June 15, 2020, order the Workgroup will continue to:

1. Identify issues the Chief Justice should address in pandemic guidance material and other protocols and emergency procedures to strengthen governance and preparedness for future events;
2. Propose changes including temporary or long-term amendments to the official rules of court and to petition the Florida Supreme Court to make those changes;
3. Recommend needed statutory changes that the Chief Justice may propose to the Legislature; and
4. Respond to other matters referred by the Chief Justice.

Florida’s courts have been operating under emergency orders since a March 13, 2020, order in which Canady suspended jury trials and took other actions restricting disease-spreading activities in the state courts.

The Workgroup was first created in an April 21, 2020, order. That order and and other emergency orders and advisories are being linked on the Florida Supreme Court’s website: https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/Emergency