COVID-19 Delaware Federal Court Updates Summary
The United States District Court for the District of Delaware and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has issued a number of orders addressing court procedures due to COVID-19. Below is a summary of these orders. These will have an impact on the hearings in Delaware and we pass them along in what is hopefully a useful summary for our clients, co-counsel, and friends of Elliott Greenleaf. This summary is not to be taken as legal advice and is subject to change as the crisis develops. Please refer to the links below and the Court for more detail and to keep up with any time-sensitive updates. We hope this summary is a useful report and assists in understanding the current status of our federal courts.
United States District Court
for the District of Delaware
All civil and criminal jury selections and trials scheduled to begin before April 30 are postponed until further notice. Sitting grand juries are authorized to continue to meet, but no new grand juries will be empanelled before April 30. All changes of a plea, sentencing and supervised release violation hearings scheduled before April 30 are postponed unless otherwise ordered by the presiding judge.
Attorneys are asked to inform the appropriate court if they have appeared in court and have since developed symptoms or tested positive for the coronavirus and to inform the courts about any scheduled proceedings that will require the attendance of a person who has tested positive for coronavirus or has been in contact in the past 14 days with a person who has tested positive for coronavirus.
The court has also suspended requirements or practice to submit paper copies unless specifically requested by a Judge.
Also, the court will conduct conferences and hearings by phone when possible and will consider any request to change a scheduled in-person proceeding to a telephone proceeding.
Link to All-District Court Standing Orders
United States Bankruptcy Court for the
District of Delaware
The Delaware Bankruptcy Court has issued a series of orders/notices. A link to the documents can be found here: https://www.deb.uscourts.gov/covid-19. The orders provide, in relevant parts, as follows:
- All hearings, status conferences, trials and any other matters scheduled to be held in open court that are not time-sensitive are continued to a date to be determined on or after April 15, 2020.
- The presiding judge shall be determined on a case by case basis whether court hearings are time-sensitive.
- Unless otherwise ordered, all court hearings that are held prior to April 15, 2020, shall be held telephonically and/or by video conference.
- The bankruptcy court will no longer accept hand delivery of documents.
- All documents requiring a debtor’s signature, the court temporarily suspends the requirement that an attorney secure the debtor’s original, physical signature prior to electronically filing such document on the condition that, prior to filing, the attorney has either (a) obtained the debtor’s digital signature via any commercially available digital signed software that signature authentication and maintains a copy of the digitally signed document(s) in the debtor’s case file; or (b) obtains express written permission (including electronic mail) from the debtor to affix the debtor’s signature to the document(s), and maintains a hard copy thereof in the file.
- Beginning Wednesday, March 18, 2020, when a court permits witness testimony, Skype For Business will be leveraged along with CourtCall to facilitate videoconference hearings. Parties must use the Skype For a Business application or download the Skype For Business Web App Plug-in, when prompted, to participate. Parties are encouraged to seek guidance from their respective IT departments to assist. Chambers staff will provide instructions to all participants scheduled to appear by videoconference. Please note that the number of participants on CourtCall is unlimited but the Skype conference is limited. The Skype conference will be coordinated through Chambers though all attorneys and parties will still be able to participate through CourtCall. Skype participants must also dial into CourtCall for audio.
- Separately, Chief Judge Sontchi has indicated that orders regarding fee applications are the court’s lowest priority followed by claims objections.
Stay healthy and be safe.
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