SAN ANTONIO – A schedule for returning to jury trials, both in-person proceedings and virtual, has been presented to all 44 Bexar County judges.
The schedule includes all 44 criminal, civil and misdemeanor courts.
“The process itself is confusing and complicated, but at the same time it’s going to be more efficient,” Local Administrative Judge Ron Rangel, who put the schedule together, said Monday. “Every single day there will be six different jury trials that will be started. Four live jury trials and two virtual trials on the civil side.”
Rangel said it is up to each judge to select which case to try.
For jurors, the new schedule means the end of standing in long lines in crowded hallways.
”When jurors go to a courtroom, there will be a certain court specifically with the time waiting for them to come in with a specific jury trial prepared to go,” Rangel explained.
Though the schedule goes into effect on May 28, Rangel cautioned, “There is nothing etched in stone.”
“We analyze whether it works, see what works and what doesn’t, and we so alter ourselves accordingly,” he said.
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