Saying “California’s judicial branch is facing an unprecedented challenge with the COVID-19 virus,” Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye today wrote to the state’s superior court presiding judges detailing “guidance to facilitate the submission, review, and approval” of requests for her to issue emergency orders under Government Code section 68115.
She said she “anticipate[s]” that such requests, if invoking the pandemic and the need for public health and safety, “will on that basis state sufficient grounds for, at a minimum,” various types of listed relief.
The Judicial Council’s news release about the Chief Justice’s letter states, “Current California law circumscribes the authority of the Chief Justice during emergencies.” That’s true of her powers under section 68115 regarding the superior courts, powers that can be exercised only on a superior court’s request. But, as mentioned earlier, rule 8.66 appears to allow the Chief Justice to extend appellate deadlines without any request.
Rule 8.66 gives the Chief Justice, in her role as Judicial Council chair, the authority to “Extend by no more than 14 additional days the time to do any act required or permitted under these rules; or . . . Authorize specified courts to extend by no more than 30 additional days the time to do any act required or permitted under these rules.” She can later “extend or renew,” for limited periods, extension orders she has made. “These rules” means only the appellate rules. We are at this time unaware of any orders under rule 8.66.
As with the Supreme Court, certain appellate courts have changed their oral argument procedures. For example, this appears on the Third District’s website: “Absent exceptional circumstances, the court will grant the request of any attorney or self-represented litigant for telephonic oral argument based on concerns relating to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The prescribed $20.00 fee for telephonic oral argument will be waived in this instance.” There are somewhat similar messages for the Fourth District, Division One, and for the First, Fifth, and Sixth Districts.
