The Elkhart Circuit Court and the Elkhart Superior Courts of Elkhart County, Indiana, are acutely aware of the pandemic in our county. Accordingly, actual face-to-face hearings in the courts in Elkhart County will only occur for emergency and essential court hearings until we can return to more normal operations. All non-emergency and non-essential hearings will either be continued or conducted remotely (by WebEx or telephonically). Non-essential hearings in civil, domestic relations, juvenile and criminal cases, include, but are not limited to: summary domestic relations hearings, small claims hearings, eviction hearings, foreclosure hearings, collections hearings, proceedings supplemental hearings, routine criminal proceedings such as initial hearings, violation of supervision, financial compliance, status hearings and pretrial conferences. Emergency matters for which actual face-to-face hearings shall occur include essential domestic violence hearings for the protection of life or limb and required evidentiary hearings in criminal cases. In-custody criminal cases will be conducted by video conferencing.
The Courts anticipate and expect that during this time of emergency, we will all cooperate to conclude as many cases as we can by agreement or by conducting remote hearings. By following these procedures, we will eliminate all face-to-face in-court hearings except those that involve emergency or essential matters. The Courts do not anticipate having any face-to-face hearings during this time since rarely does a hearing involve an emergency or absolutely essential matter requiring a face-to-face hearing.
All jury trials set during the time that Elkhart County is in a red status will be continued to a new date. We will notify you of new trial and hearing dates so make certain that we have your proper E-mail information and address. As a general rule, spectators and the public will be denied entrance to our courts so long as this Emergency Order is in effect. The public may watch a live-stream of court proceedings at https://public.courts.in.gov/incs#/.
The Elkhart County Court Clerk is also following this protocol. The Clerk of the Court will be available for filing protective orders, handling child support matters, and providing marriage licenses by appointment only. You should again handle as much as your business with the Elkhart County Court Clerk as you can by telephone or by electronic means. The Clerk will have a drop-box in each courthouse for depositing filings which are being made by hand with the respective courts. The Clerk will also have at each courthouse a computer terminal set up to make payments. Any questions which you may have may be directed to the Clerk’s office in Goshen by telephoning 535-6430, or the Clerk’s office in Elkhart by telephoning 523-2305, or by telephoning the respective court in which your case is pending. Please also remember that the status of pending cases may be confirmed at: mycase.in.gov.
This protocol is in place to protect all of us from COVID-19 more commonly known as the Coronavirus. We hope that the need for these requirements will soon be behind us and that we may return to operations as normal. We thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation and assistance in these most difficult times.
Elkhart Circuit Court
Elkhart Superior Court No. 1
Elkhart Superior Court No. 2
Elkhart Superior Court No. 3
Elkhart Superior Court No. 4
Elkhart Superior Court No. 5
Elkhart Superior Court No. 6
Elkhart County Clerk
A downloadable copy of this release can be found here.