Outbreak causes trial delays because court staff and others should test and isolate, judge says

After a workplace outbreak in San Francisco, the employer should ask the employee concerned when they tested COVID-19-positive or when their symptoms started and should inform the employee’s close contacts that they were exposed, a recent court ruling said.

In the case of Estrada v. The Superior Court of the City and County of San Francisco, the term “close contacts” was defined as including those with whom the individual has been indoors for over 15 minutes, regardless of whether they were wearing masks.

Those who tested positive, with or without symptoms, should stay home and away from others for five days, the case explained. After five days, if they still tested positive, they should continue staying home until they have tested negative or until 10 days have passed since the first positive test, whichever came first.

On June 18, 2021, the San Francisco Superior Court reopened all its courtrooms but maintained numerous emergency rules and orders. In late May to early June 2022, two defendants subject to criminal charges entered pleas of not guilty and requested jury trials.

The superior court said that it had good cause to postpone the trials until a courtroom was available, given the exceptional and extraordinary circumstances that the COVID-19 pandemic caused.

The defendants objected and filed motions to dismiss their cases. They claimed that the superior court violated...

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