How can California possibly allow courthouses in Los Angeles County to remain open?

My attorney friend had to attend court today for an “emergency hearing.” She discovered a judge who also had to attend this court, not normally his own, was just diagnosed with covid-19.

The same judge who she has sat mere feet away from for weeks. The same judge who countless legal practitioners have interacted with for weeks on end.

He inadvertently infected his entire family at home.

Even after this–and the fact that New York City is teleconferencing such hearings, as well as for notarizing documents–my attorney friend is hereby ordered to attend yet another hearing in the same courthouse on Wednesday.

The court has not even mentioned the safety ramifications here for all involved, nor testing the attorneys and other courthouse staff.

I happen to be a virus refugee in this friend’s apartment. We are doing our best essentially co-isolating together. But there is only so much we can do as she keeps being ordered to appear within the confines of a “cesspool” of a courthouse.