COVID-19 Court Procedures

Lisa R. Reeves, Presiding Judge                              Latrella Robinson, Court Clerk

David Taylor, Judge Pro-Tempore

Grantville Municipal Court COVID-19 Response Plan

Beginning June 16, 2020, the court will resume conducting in-person hearings. Pursuant to the orders of the Supreme Court of Georgia and recommendation of Governor Brian Kemp and the Centers for Disease Control, certain safety measures will be put in place to protect the health and safety of the defendants, court personnel, and the public.  The following procedures will be strictly followed as an order of the court.

Procedures

Individual taken into custody by the Grantville Police Department charged with violation that fall under the jurisdiction the City of Grantville are screened at the jail and also given their bond hearing within the mandated time via Zoom or telephone conferencing with the judge.  Individuals arrested as the result of warrants due to probation or contempt of court are screened at the jail and then given a bond hearing via Zoom or telephone conferencing with the judge.

Day of Court:

Court staff or police officer and intern are stationed outside prior to entry into the building.  They handle health screenings.  Health screenings are as follows:

Temperature checks are conducted within the 100.3 guidelines as established by the Centers for Disease Control guidelines.

COVID-19 questionnaires

Issuance of Mask

Sanitization of Hands

COVID-19 questionnaires are posted in English and Spanish for privacy.  The questionnaire is completed prior to entry, if they answer “YES” any of the COVID-19 health screening questions, the individual will be given a continuance.  The individual is required to sign the questionnaire which will be scanned and filed with the individual’s ticket. 

Any individual found to have a temperature of 100.4 or higher degrees will not be allowed access into the building and their hearing will be continued to the next available court date.

All individuals to include court staff are required to wear court issued face mask or their personal mask covering the nose and mouth.

All individuals to include court staff must maintain required social distancing requirements.  This will include, but will not be limited to, remaining six feet from any other individual in the building and seating area in the courtroom.

The courtroom will be disinfected prior to each court session and areas that are shared by individuals will be disinfected between each person’s contact with the area.

The court will provide supplies such as pens for all defendants to keep or they may use their own pens.

Based on the size of the courtroom no more than 15 individuals will be allowed to enter the courtroom at a time.  The seating will be arranged by court personnel to maintain social distancing requirements.  No one can modify the seating arrangements or to move seating without prior court permission.

Courtroom personnel will direct how many people can enter the building at one time.  If there are more people waiting to enter the building than can be allowed to remain, they can return to their cars until they qued by the paging number.  Security/Health screening will take place for every 15 people 10 minutes prior to scheduled court time.

Individuals entering the building are encouraged to bring their own hand-sanitizer, but the courtroom has been equipped with hand-sanitizer on the courtroom walls.

In order to comply with the CDC physical distancing guidelines, the Courts ask that only defendants and/or their attorney unless, under 21 should attend the court hearing.

Any under 21 defendants are allowed one person beside their attorney to accompany them to the court.

Individuals are asked to contact the court if they are not able to comply with this request.  No one other than the Defendant, attorney, and guardian will be allowed in the building.

Probation office will be taking contactless initial information from the individual enroll the individual in the probation program.  Probation will perform sanitization duties within the CDC guidelines behind each defendant to maintain a clean and safe working environment.

Individuals are encouraged to visit the City of Grantville website for more information or call the Grantville Municipal Court for any questions at  (770) 583-2255 or via email at lrobinson@grantvillega.org.