Beginning June 1, 2020, in-personhearings will resume for Forsyth County State Court cases. The first group ofcases to be held in-person will consist of reduced calendars (usually no morethan 40 people per day per courtroom) of arraignments for serious misdemeanoroffenses as well as traffic arraignments.

If a resident has received a notice fora court appearance during the first two weeks of June, they may receive a newcourt date notice rescheduling their appearance due to the reduced calendar asin-person hearings resume.

For those charged with a trafficcitation:

-       Thecitation may be payable.

-       If theticket was one that originally required the individual to appear in court, itmay have been made “payable” by the prosecutor.

-       Tocheck the status of a citation or to pay a citation, please visit the ForsythCounty Clerk’s website.

-       If theticket is not payable, contact the Solicitor General at 770-781-2145.

As the court plans to resume in-personhearings, guidelines consistent with the Chief Justice’s May 11, 2020 extensionof a Declaration of Statewide Judicial Emergency are being designed to protectthe health and safety of all those coming to the courthouse. The guidelines willallow the courts to begin working on the backlog of cases caused by thepandemic. Once complete, the guidelines will be published on the Forsyth CountyClerk’s website, www.forsythclerk.com.

Pursuant to the Chief Justice’s initial orderdeclaring a Statewide Judicial Emergency issued March 14, all non-essentialForsyth County State Court cases were continued. These cases included Trafficand Misdemeanor offenses. On May 11, 2020, the Chief Justice entered a second orderextending the Declaration of Statewide Judicial Emergency which provides forsome in-person judicial proceedings, but only if they are conducted incompliance with public health guidelines and with all applicable law and courtrules.

During the judicial emergency, the StateCourt of Forsyth County has been successful in conducting many types ofhearings using videoconferencing technology such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

The State Court Judges will continueusing this technology to reduce the number of people who will be required tophysically come to the courthouse to resolve their case.