BOISE, Idaho — As courthouses across Idaho get back to business, the COVID-created backlog remains a major challenge.
“It is still fairly daunting,” said Judge Steven Hippler, Administrative District Judge for the 4th District Court in Ada County.
Judge Hippler and his colleagues are working to catch up on cases that saw delay after delay because of COVID. A major focus point, getting in-custody defendants before a jury trial.
“We are probably backlogged by about 350 to 500 trials would be my guess,” Hippler said. “In terms of, you know, we haven't tried any civil cases since early 2020 January, February. So we're a couple years behind on civil trials and that will be a significant component of trying to catch up.”
So, how long could it take in Ada County to fully catch up and get back to “normal”? It’s impossible to say for sure, but Judge Hippler has this insight:
“Before we get through the full effects of the pandemic and everything is sort of back to operating at a normal level. I think we're talking about 2024, 2025 maybe even. I mean, I think it's just going to take that long to get back to a normal start. That allows, also, a little bit of perhaps another stop here or there in that time frame,” Hippler said.
The stop and start reality of COVID has made the situation challenging.
“I feel a little bit like Charlie Brown ready to try to kick a field goal. You know, I'm just hopeful that Lucy doesn't pull the ball on me again. Right? So I've been here before. Optimistic. And then something else happens. Another shoe drops, and we're back. Having to shut down again,” Hippler said.
Navigating everything through COVID has been a challenge that comes with natural frustration at times. Courts were not originally setup to handle business through a pandemic, because of that people on all sides of court proceedings have had to be patient and wait.
“That's a little bit of a frustration that we're not able to afford defendants that important right to go to trial quickly. I think one of the other frustrations has been the start and stop nature of things. You know, so in a given case, you know, the state has to reach out to witnesses and subpoena them and make them available for a given week and then they're not able to go,” Hippler said.
At the Ada County courthouse, Hippler says there has been great efforts to embrace technology and creativity to keep as many court proceedings going as possible. Things like court appearances via zoom have made access easier. At the same time though, some non-traditional court proceedings have come with the sacrifice of standard process and procedure that is vital to proceedings.
“We have to weigh all those things and decide how we're going to carry forward, what tools we're going to carry forward and which we're going to recognize that might have been efficient. But it's important that these proceeding, the certain proceedings go back to in-person,” Hippler said.
Moving forward, Hippler says there is cautious optimism and an eye for improving the courts and proceedings through lessons learned.
“We're hopeful that we can learn a lot through this and develop some new tools and processes that will make things even more efficient going forward,” Hippler said.
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