BUSINESS LAW 101 / CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

By Albert L. Kelley

Like most entities, the Courts have been greatly impacted by the Coronavirus outbreak.  Slowly, they are getting back to the people’s business. Throughout the outbreak the Courts have remained open for “mission critical” issues.  This includes criminal matters, dependency cases and mental health cases. This week the court started back with civil cases, but on a restrictive basis.  The courtrooms are still closed to the public, but the judges still need to near cases.  In many cases they are doing hearings by telephone.  This is nothing new.  Telephonic hearings have been allowed for years.  About 25 years ago, a company called Courtcall started a party-line system that allowed numerous parties to attend by telephone simultaneously.

One of the things that has been missing is evidentiary hearings.  While legal arguments are easily made by phone, submitting evidence is not as simple.  There must be witnesses testimony to provide proof that the evidence is proper; there must be an examination by the parties and the judge. These things cannot be done easily over the phone.  For that reason, our courts have turned to videoconferencing. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court issued an administrative order that allows the courts to hear witnesses and accept evidence, so long as they can see the witnesses. Through the use of videoconferencing services such as Zoom and Google Meets, evidentiary hearings are being held in some cases.

The Courts are still not hearing residential eviction cases, now until July 1.  The Governor has signed an administrative Order staying any enforcement of the eviction statutes.  This does not remove the tenants obligation to pay rent; however, if rent is not paid, as soon as the stay is lifted, they may be evicted.

One of the side effects of reopening the Keys was an increase in crime.  During the last seven days, 79 people were booked into the Monroe County Jail.  Of those, 35 were from out of the county.  That equates to 44% of those arrested.  These people were not arrested for the most part on minor charges. Charges included 10 DUIs, 3 Driving on a suspended license, 5 probation violations, 4 drug or drug equipment possession, 1 grand theft auto, 1 aggravated assault,  2 battery, 3 fugitives/out of county warrants, 1 fraud, 1 public safety violation, 1 lewd and lascivious behavior,  1 property damage and 1 trespass.  These are just the major charges- many or those arrested were charged with multiple counts.

Monroe County now has 116 cases of coronavirus, including 105 residents and 11 non-residents. This is an increase of 6 new cases since reopening (The county saw one new case on June 4 and June 6, three new cases on June 7 and one new case on June 9).  We also have 10 hospitalization of residents and 2 nonresidents. There has also been an increase in deaths to 5, up one since reopening.

On a global level, as of June 11, 2020 there are 7.4 million cases-roughly the equivalent of the population of Massachusetts. The United States just passed the 2 million mark-roughly the equivalent to the population of New Mexico.  And Florida has 67,371 cases, roughly the equivalent to Port Orange, Florida.  The rate of new cases in Florida had dropped to an average of 756 per day at the end of May; however, it has now nearly doubled to an average of 1,229 new cases per day.  This is roughly the same rate we saw at the peak of the virus in early April.  The death rate has increased slightly from an average of 30 per day to 33.

Al Kelley is a Florida business law attorney located in Key West and previously taught business law, personnel law and labor law at St. Leo University.  He is also the author of four law books: (“Basics of Business Law” “Basics of Florida’s Small Claims Court”, “Basics of Florida’s Landlord/Tenant Law” and “Basics of Starting a Florida Business” (Absolutely Amazing e-Books)). This article is being offered as a public service and is not intended to provide specific legal advice.  If you have any questions about legal issues, you should confer with a licensed Florida attorney.

 

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