In a brief opinion, Chief Justice John Dan Kemp said the update should come as welcome news to Arkansas' lawyers and court personnel.
Despite the emergency precautions put in place to keep judicial personnel safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been forced to put "themselves in harm's way for nearly a year" to keep the courts working, sometimes suffering "severe consequences" in the process, Justice Kemp said.
Justice Kemp said the new designation for legal workers comes as part of a broader move this week by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to expand the definition of essential workers in the state, and is the product of nearly a year of close communication between the governor, the Arkansas Department of Health and the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The high court said in its announcement on Thursday that most judges, clerks, security officers and court staff are covered by the order, as well as jurors and most prosecutors, public defenders and other attorneys who need to show up to court in person for criminal cases.
Justice Kemp said the Arkansas Supreme Court will try to add others to the list "as we monitor the governor's statewide rollout."
The vaccination of attorneys and other court personnel seems likely to become a hot-button issue in the legal world in the months ahead, with BigLaw firms already debating the merits of mandating attorney vaccination before returning to the office and several states recently announcing they'll being holding in-person trials again soon for important civil cases and criminal proceedings.
Meanwhile, other states say they will stick to Zoom trials for now, even for some criminal cases.
Much of the U.S. justice system is still reeling from the pandemic, as evidenced by ongoing calls to release prisoners being held on minor offenses due to their likelihood to contract the virus in cramped detention centers, as well as lingering fears that in-person trials and other courtroom proceedings could become superspreader events.
--Editing by Nicole Bleier.
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