Like many of you, we have been monitoring the Cornovirus Pandemic and its implications to our community. With COVID-19 officially reaching pandemic status, local, State, and Federal governments are implementing policies designed to lessen the risk and keep us all safer.
During these uncertain times, there are many things outside our control. However, we are working diligently throughout our organization to ensure as little disruption to our services as possible, under the circumstances. We have been particularly diligent in predicting and planning for the impact on our ability to meet our professional responsibilities to our Clients.
There are significant challenges to be sure, but we have quickly become prepared to meet or exceed the expectations and the anticipated needs of those whom we represent. The health and safety of our Clients, our Employees and all our trusted Vendors and Service Providers were an essential consideration as we developed office policies and protocols appropriate to the concerns associated with this worldwide event.
The Law Office of David A. Martin & Associates will remain operational
through the Coronovirus Event
At the present, our availability to provide legal advice and guidance to our Clients is relatively unchanged. However, we are requesting that all client meetings be conducted over the phone rather than in-person. We are making and receiving phone calls through our normal process, we are sending and receiving emails, postal mail, and courier deliveries. For now, we are striving for “business as usual” and we are hard at work diligently tending to the legal interests of those we represent.
To the best of our knowledge, no employee or other person associated with this office has reported any symptoms or concerns regarding Covid-19/Coronovirus. However, we feel it is both prudent and our civic duty to abide by the advice and guidance offered by the Federal, State and Local Governments.
If we are required by law or circumstances to work remotely, we have created a technology infrastructure that will allow us to do so with very little disruption. It is our goal that the client experience remain unchanged.
We do expect further developments will likely hinder our ability to achieve your litigation goals, at least in the short term. For example, just today we received word that the Sacramento County Court intends to continue all non-essential hearings to a future date, yet to be determined. We expect Placer, El Dorado, Yolo, Yuba and Sutter Counties to soon follow. We will be individually contacting each affected client about this, but all litigants will be affected as the Court’s case load backs up and the Court’s clerk staff seeks to manage unprecedented demands on their resources. [See below for links to local Court Websites]
Until such time as risk of contagion is reduced, we are asking our clients to observe the following protocols:
1. All Client meetings should be conducted via electronic means (Phone, email, etc);
2. If your case has a hearing or custody mediation scheduled in the next 60 days, please anticipate your matter may be continued by the Court without input from either party or their counsel;
3. If you become involved in a new issue or dispute which the Court must decide, please be prepared for a delay in normal calendaring protocols but do not delay in bringing the dispute to our attention. It is our assessment that court filings will resume if interrupted, and the first matters filed will be the first put on the Court calendar;
4. If you have a dispute which is caused by or related to the local, state, Federal or International impact from Coronovirus please alert us as soon as practicable so we can assist in navigating that difficulty;
5. We are encouraging our clients and all our community to find common ground and even new ways to resolve the disputes between us - and to use this event as an opportunity to create more effective lines of communication, deeper respect for each other and a higher tolerance for our shortcomings;
6. Check the Court website for the County in which your matter is being heard for updates on court news. Here are links to some of the regional county court websites:
https://www.saccourt.ca.gov/family/family-law.aspx
https://www.suttercourts.com/divisions/civil/family-law
Finally, we’ve always appreciated the opportunity to earn your business, and today is no different. We ask for your patience as we work to take care of all our Clients’ needs in the coming weeks, as well as provide comfort and support to our own families. I want to thank our amazing team members for their professionalism, creativity and dedication to the mission of this office.
David A. Martin, Attorney at Law
