San Mateo County jury trials continued due to coronavirus order

“They call in thousands of jurors,” Wagstaffe said.

More than half the staff in the office of the District Attorney will work from home starting Tuesday for at least the next two weeks, Wagstaffe said.

Those working at home include older attorneys as well as parents who have to take care of their children because schools are closed.

Preliminary hearings for defendants who have not waived time will be held — along with pretrial conferences and arraignments for in-custody defendants.

The court sent home every judge 65 years of age or older, Wagstaffe said.

Those judges represent six out of the 24 in the San Mateo County Superior Court, Wagstaffe said.

Wagstaffe, who began working as a prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office in 1977, said of the court closings that “There’s never been anything like this.”

The website for the superior court said all traffic court hearings are suspended and will be continued.

The court has implemented additional cleaning protocols in high use areas to reduce the potential for transmission of the coronavirus, according to the website.

Lisa Maguire, chief defender in the Private Defender Program for San Mateo County, said of court-related closings that “this is unprecedented.”

“We’re going to have to wait and see how this all unfolds,” Maguire said.

Attorneys in the private defender program are working to assure that no one’s constitutional rights are affected, she said.

The San Mateo County Bar Association has canceled all non-essential meetings, its website said, and the Lawyer Referral Service program will not accept walk-in clients this month.

The decision arrives in the wake of state Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye announcing she is prepared to approve deadline extensions in courts across California’s 58 counties, following safety precautions to prevent further virus spread.