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Law360 (September 24, 2020, 10:45 PM EDT ) Texas' federal courthouse in Waco can open back up for trials on Oct. 1, its only district court judge said in an order.
U.S. District Judge Alan Albright said in Wednesday's order that the Waco courthouse, which handles cases from 13 counties in the Western District of Texas, can now be made safe for jurors and litigants given a "meaningful decline" in COVID-19 cases in the region since July.
"The court is prepared to mandate appropriate distancing in the courtroom and around the courthouse, limit the number of individuals in the courtroom, provide face masks or face shields to jurors, supply hand sanitizer, and install Plexiglass shields where beneficial and appropriate," Judge Albright said.
"The division is confident that, as things stand today, it can conduct fair trials in a safe manner," he said.
The judge is set to hold jury selection Oct. 1 and start trial Oct. 5 in a high-profile case against Roku by MV3 Partners LLC over streaming media patents.
The Western District of Texas is still under a jury trial moratorium imposed by Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, who most recently extended the order on Monday. But Judge Garcia said in that order that the 93,000-square-mile, 68-county district may have regions where trials can move forward safely and left room for division judges to make their own calls.
Judge Albright — the only district judge in Waco, serving alongside one magistrate judge — said the courthouse will prohibit people infected with COVID-19, people who care for or live with those who have COVID-19, and people experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 from entering.
All who do enter must wear masks, except for witnesses who are engaged in testifying and lawyers who are engaged in questioning witnesses or speaking to a jury.
Judge Albright said in mid-August that trials could resume Sept. 1, citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showing that the division's 13 counties contain only 2.3% of Texas's COVID-19 cases. The 13 counties constitute 5.1% of the counties in Texas.
It was not immediately clear why trial resumption was delayed an additional month following that estimate.
Judge Albright said in Wednesday's order that those 13 counties now make up 2.44% of all COVID-19 cases in Texas, still a low enough level that he believes trials can be conducted safely.
Almost immediately after the order takes effect, the judge is set to hear a noteworthy patent case in which MV3 Partners claims Roku infringed its intellectual property.
The trial was set to start June 1, June 29, then early August and most recently early September, but Judge Albright pushed it back each time due to the pandemic. Roku's lawyers told the judge in August that they did not feel safe holding it in early September.
Representatives for Roku and MV3 were not immediately available for comment.
--Additional reporting by Dani Kass. Editing by Haylee Pearl.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
