Some Riverside County Courts Slated to Reopen Monday

PALM SPRINGS (CNS) – Three Riverside County courthouses that were shuttered almost three months ago amid the coronavirus emergency are slated to reopen Monday, with the last of the closed court facilities returning to public availability next week. The Palm Springs Courthouse, Riverside Family Law Court and Riverside Historic Courthouse are scheduled to open their doors at 8 a.m. The re-openings follow the Banning Justice Center’s return to limited operations last Monday. County Presiding Judge John Vineyard signed a directive two weeks ago keeping four courthouses — the Corona Courthouse, the Hemet Courthouse, the Moreno Valley Traffic & Small Claims Court and the Temecula Courthouse — closed until the morning of June 15. According to a court statement, the extended closures stem from "an effort to comply with federal, state and local guidelines" for COVID-19 mitigation. Staff will be enforcing social distancing and facial covering rules at all of the reopened facilities, according to the Superior Court Executive Office. The courts were shut down in mid-March, and the Riverside Juvenile Dependency Court on Farm Road was closed on April 13, as part of the court’s participation in COVID-19 containment. The juvenile court was re-opened before the end of April after all staff tested negative for the virus. Vineyard is responsible for all closure orders, but officials pointed out that he’s consulting judges in every region of the county to gather consensus. Under an order originally issued March 16, most operations — and all public access — at the courthouses now due to reopen were suspended. Since that time, the downtown Riverside Hall of Justice has remained open daily from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., along with the Larson Justice Center in Indio, the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta and the Blythe Courthouse. The Superior Court’s web portal remains available, though the timely updating of information on cases has been impacted. In March, the Superior Court implemented a series of policy changes that remain in force, all of which, officials said, are based on the need to safeguard against coronavirus. The foremost action was to halt criminal jury trials. However, those are now set to begin again before the end of this month. Civil jury trials are suspended until the first half of August, at the earliest. Parties who require additional information were encouraged to visit http://www.riverside.courts.ca.gov, or call the court at 951-777-3147.