Kelly Hayes
The Sixth Judicial Circuit Court, which spans Pinellas and Pasco counties, will resume civil and criminal trials in early March after suspending such operations due to the pandemic.
Pinellas County criminal trials will restart March 1, and civil trials will resume March 15, Sixth Circuit Chief Judge Anthony Rondolino announced in Court News Florida.
The court’s trial operations in Pinellas will resume after a review of the most recent COVID-19 data, which indicates there has been sustained improvement. The court determined this with a variety of factors, including a maintained weekly positivity rate below 10%, which Pinellas has sustained below 8%.
In Pasco County, criminal and civil jury trials will resume on March 15.
The decision was made based on the county’s weekly positivity rates declining from 9.6% for the period from Jan. 17 to Jan. 23 to 7.5% for the period from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6.
Since the onset of the pandemic, circuits have been instructed by the Florida Supreme Court to consider resuming jury trials only when, among other things, a circuit’s positivity rate has been below 10% for a sustained period of time.
The Florida court system is comprised of the state Supreme Court, five district courts of appeal, 20 circuit courts and 67 county courts.
