April 3, 2010
To the family law bar of Alameda County and its litigants:
I have been asked to send out a brief announcement about the current state of affairs in light of this unprecedented crisis. As all of you are aware, the “Shelter in Place” Order has been extended to May 3, 2020. As a consequence our courts will continue to be closed during that time.
The court is currently working on resetting all matters set between April 8th and May 1st. You may anticipate that if you have a hearing scheduled between April 8th and May 1st it will be continued. You will receive a Notice of Resetting by the court in the mail. Any temporary restraining orders will be reissued for no more than 30 days.
Yesterday, the Executive Committee for the court passed an emergency local rule mandating videoconferencing and telephonic appearances and electronic filing in all civil matters. The court will continue to maintain a drop box at RCD locations for TROs and Hayward for TROs and Ex parte emergency requests. The court is working on a system and rules by which telephonic and video conferencing hearings will be held in the future. The court is similarly working on getting our fax filing system back on line to allow for very limited fax filings.
Commissioner Bishay still remains available to assist parties in settlement discussions via a video conferencing platform. He can be reached at [email protected] but reminds parties that there is no mechanism in place to put agreements on the record.
I will continue to reach out to the family bar and parties moving through our courts once I have further updated information. I trust that everyone is taking care of themselves and your families—and sheltering in.
Judge Greg Syren
