On 17 April 2020, Czech Minister of Justice issued new Recommendation (replacing previous recommendation dated 13 March 2020) issued under Emergency Measure no. MZDR 15757/2020-4/MIN/KAN issued by Czech Minister of Health. Both measures generally adjust the functioning of the Czech courts which should be returning to normal operation, i.e. handling all cases, not only the one where action is required by law such as decisions regarding custody.
In addition, the Ministry of Health instructed in emergency measure no. MZDR 15757/2020-3/MIN/KAN ("Emergency Measure") which requests that all public authorities adhere to increased hygiene standards. In practice this means that anybody entering a court building has to wear a mask (or otherwise cover his/her nose and mouth) and have their temperature taken upon entry.
The final decision regarding organization of court work still remains at the discretion of a president at each court. In practice we have seen that courts are slowly returning back to their normal operations (for example we have received new dates for previously cancelled oral hearings which are being set for June 2020). Nevertheless, courts still use a "shift system" (i.e. only a number of judges and staff meet in the court building at the same time) and working remotely.
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