Here we go again- Bucks County Suspends Jury Trials – COVID

We were all hopeful that this was behind us, but with the recent surge in COVID in the Philadelphia suburbs Bucks County has suspended all jury trial from January 20, 2022 through February 28, 2022. It will be interesting to see if another Order comes out suspending trials from February 28 or jury trials will return then. It was also interesting to see that whereas previous Orders noted that Rule 600 (the speedy trial rule) was suspended, this one did not. I always argued that it seemed superfluous to mention Rule 600 since the rule only applies to delay by the District Attorney. If jury trials have been suspended, how can the District Attorney delay bringing someone to trial. So in my mind it doesn’t really matter whether the Order suspending jury trials mentions Rule 600 or not, but I’d love to hear what others think in the comments below.