A Vancouver based lawyer believes there are some holes in the system when it comes to keeping people safe from COVID-19 in the province’s courthouses.

Acumen Law’s Kyla Lee says when the courts first opened back up, there was a lot of diligence being done at the door of courthouses.

“Sheriffs have to engage in a health check with individuals to make sure they haven’t been experiencing symptoms, haven’t travelled outside of the country, they haven’t had any close contacts with a person who is positive for COVID-19. Essentially verifying that people are safe to enter the courthouse. That diligence has dropped off as we’ve been open now for six or seven months since those rules came into place.”

She says she is often just getting a simple question now such as “How are you feeling today counsel?” and not going through the list of health questions to make sure she is healthy enough to gain access to the courthouse. Lee adds that in her experience, court staff are bypassing the health checks altogether.

“The people who are working in the building who have the most contact with members of the public, and having the most contact with outside individuals and crown counsel who’s offices often are inside the courthouses themselves…. court staff are among the people who have tested positive in the last week in these courthouses. So there’s a real dropping of the ball in making sure people are coming in safely.”

Last week at there were at least 10 test positive for COVID-19 cases linked to courthouses in Surrey and Abbotsford.

Lee goes on to say that a single-site order for sheriff’s would also make sense noting they are at a significant risk because they do the transports from jails. “And there are many jails where there are or have been COVID-19 outbreaks. They transport them to the courthouse and then they have other duties there.”

“They have contacts with other sheriffs, they have contacts with defense lawyers, they have contacts with crown counsel, they have contact with the judges. It would make sense, if we’ve got a single site-order in care homes, to also have a single-site order when it comes to sheriffs.”

Other issues include non-medical masks being mandatory in court buildings, but not in all court rooms.