We have ruminated extensively on the inevitable delays attendant to the covid 19 outbreak for Maryland personal injury jury trials. Court pronouncements suggested a more optimistic calendar for a while but as courts marginally reopen the tone is shifting and conversations among trial lawyers yield a strong conviction that jury trials in Maryland's more populous counties will be a long way off.
Presently the scuttlebut is that the massive postponement of criminal jury trials will swamp the courts for all of 2021 if it is feasible to start those cases in 2021!
This means that new criminal cases and already filed civil cases will get first dibs on trial dates into 2022 and well into the future. It seems probable that longer duration personal injury and malpractice cases will be pushed to 2023.
This phenomenon could undermine the court's ability to process its workload and could well mean the victims of personal injury may well wait years for justice.
NEXT: What can be done about this?
