Brunswick County Courthouse overcoming the challenges of COVID-19

BOLIVIA, NC (WWAY) — The nation continues to deal with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s not just businesses feeling the pressure, local judicial systems have been put to the test as well. The Brunswick County Courthouse has found a new way to operate not only safer, but smarter.

The staff at Brunswick County Courthouse in Bolivia has seen plenty of cases over the years, but has never faced anything quite like the challenges that have come with covid-19. One of the people whose had to face it head on, is newly appointed Superior Court Judge Jason Disbrown, who helped lead the charge to get court back in session.

“We had to put our heads together, come up with a plan, it’s been a true team effort,”says Disbrow. “I’m a very small piece of that quite frankly. We had individuals brainstorming, coming up with ideas based on those early meetings that we had in May.”

One of those ideas was to use a restaurant app to help control the number of people that were inside of the courthouse at any given time.

“One idea came from the Department of Social Services with a table ready app, which is similar to what folks use when you go to a restaurant,” Disbrow said. “That helps us keep people outside of the courthouse, minimizes the amount of people inside obviously for social distance requirements.”

The courthouse didn’t stop their safety precautions there. They have gone above and beyond their requirements, even going as far as holding court outdoors on certain days.

“We have a staff out front with district attorney’s, clerks, lawyers, their clients,” says the Clerk of the Superior Court James J. MacCallum. “We try to do everything out front on a nice day of course to prevent people from having to enter the building.”

The Brunswick County Courthouse is set to resume trials with a jury in November. So, they had to revamp the courtroom for health and safety measures. This included, putting up plexiglass between each person and limiting the amount of extra seating. Judge Disbrow says while this is just the beginning, they wouldn’t have been able to get where they are now without every single member of the courthouse staff.

“I wanted the input from all the stakeholders and quite frankly that’s the only way this would’ve work is if everybody bought in and worked together,” Disbrow said. “Everybody has worked together and done just that.”

The Brunswick County Courthouse says they plan to keep these protocols in place as long as the need is still there.