Canady: Florida's court system is one of the nation's 'leanest'.

Florida courts used remote technology and aggressive case management to successfully navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Justice Charles Canady told the Economic Club of Florida.

Addressing a crowd of business and civic leaders at the FSU Alumni Center on May 17, Canady stressed that the courts never stopped functioning.

"It was critical that we figure out a way to keep going, and we did that," he said. "Our courts were never closed, not for a minute." Despite the pandemic and a temporary halt to jury trials, Florida courts resolved 2.7 million cases in fiscal year 2021, Canady said.

Significant progress has been made in reducing a pandemic-related backlog of some 600,000 cases, he said.

"We did shrink it beyond what any of us would have anticipated," he said. "That's due to the hard work of trial judges and the lawyers."

A Supreme Court administrative order that required judges and lawyers to set a trial date up front, and to stick to strict deadlines, provided the necessary incentive to keep cases moving, Canady said.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Canady said the courts had little choice but to stop summoning jurors. "I'm keenly aware of that because of the fact that we issue people invitations that they can't refuse," he said. "We also realized the imperative to keep cases going as much as possible. You can't just shut down the courts."

Canady was joined at a head table by Economic Club of Florida President Lorence "Lo" Bielby, First District Court of Appeal Chief Judge Lori S. Rowe, and fellow Justice Carlos Muniz, who succeeds Canady as chief justice in July.

Canady described the Florida court system as one of the "leanest" in the nation, with about 1,000...