How Lawyers Have Adapted Their Work During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Most if not all industries have been drastically affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and law is no different. Courts may be closed to most cases, but that doesn’t mean the practice of law has stopped. There are many ways lawyers during Covid-19 have adjusted to the era of social distancing helped tremendously by technology. 

Electronic Court Filings

Staff at the courthouse is significantly reduced and non-essential workers are strongly encouraged to stay home. However, there are still legal documents that need to be filed. Electronic filing has existed for some time, but many lawyers were still filing their documents in person in court. Now, all lawyers who need to have been taking advantage of the ability to file their documents electronically, allowing for case work to still go on despite not being able to physically go to the courthouse.

Video Depositions, Mediations, and Client Meetings

Thanks to the technology we have available to us, lawyers and other legal staff, including court reporters, have been able to virtually continue conducting depositions, mediations, and other meetings and negotiations while still following the protocols of the Covid-19 lockdown. Lawyers have also been meeting with clients, witnesses, and experts over video chat to continue building cases that are in progress.

Statutes of Limitations Extended Indefinitely

Our previous post explaining statutes of limitations discussed how different kinds of cases have time limits for when you can actually file a lawsuit. After that amount of time has passed, usually three years in New York, you usually can no longer sue someone for their negligence. However, courts are not taking new cases at the moment, which could be a problem for those coming up on their statute of limitations deadline. Thankfully, the courts have announced that all statutes of limitations have been extended indefinitely. This means that if you are coming up on your statute of limitations deadline, you now have more time to file your lawsuit. Make sure you do it as soon as courts open up again!

Paperwork

All cases involve a certain amount of to-do items like obtaining or giving over discovery items, catching up on paperwork, and so on. Lawyers during Covid-19 are still working diligently on these to-do list items, and have even more time to work on them now that they are not spending time in court. 

We Are Still Here For You

Most importantly, attorneys are still here for their clients and are working hard on their cases so that as soon as courts open up again, they are ready to get those favorable results. At Goldberg and Chase Law, we are continuing to work with all our clients and to make sure their cases continue to move forward.