As of Monday many courtrooms across Iowa were allowed to reopen for in-person court proceedings after being closed for months due COVID-19. As courtrooms begin opening, the burden of keeping people safe while continuing to proceed with important court cases could be problematic according to Marion County Attorney Ed Bull. Bull tells KNIA/KRLS News there are things that are required to be done that could drastically change how trials are held, most notably the amount of people able to attend a trial or be in the courtroom while a trial is being conducted. He says normally a trial will bring close to 75 people in for jury duty selection and he says he could see that number cut dramatically to maybe 10-15 at a time with multiple selection opportunities being held. 

Bull says in addition to cutting the number of people at a trial,the normal proceedings of a trial such as jury selection will be impacted and court officials are going to have to adapt and rethink ways to conduct a trial while keeping people socially distant and safe.