The Supreme Court-Office of the Court Administrator has issued a circular providing guidelines for court operations in areas recently placed under Alert Level 1 and Alert Level by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF) due to increasing cases of COVID-19.
The circular covers court operations from April 25 to April 30, 2023. Under the guidelines, for areas under Alert 1, which included the National Capital Region (NCR), or Alert Level 2 or higher, court and judicial offices will remain physically open with 50 to 70 percent workforce.
Judges without court space or facilities of their own, but already have their own personnel, are directed to maintain a skeleton workforce of at least 40 percent.
Saturday duty and night courts are not allowed in areas under Alert Level 1 and Alert Level 2.
However, personal filing and follow-up of cases are allowed subject to strict health protocols being observed.
“If the IATF places a particular province under Alert Level 2 but identifies certain cities or municipalities therein under Alert Level 1 or places an area under a conflicting Alert Level system with a more restrictive health protocol, such classification will not in any way affect the observance of the required court operation guidelines as provided herein,” the circular stated.
While face-to-face hearings are given priority, the SC-OCA has allowed all Judges until April 30, 2023 to conduct fully remote videoconferencing hearings, for at most thrice in a week, regardless of their location in the country, with notice to the OCA.
“Court personnel who are not scheduled to report to the court/office shall be considered under a work-from-home arrangement… More importantly, those required to work-from-home during the subject period must ensure that their lines of communication are always open,” the circular stated.
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