By Lauren Berg

Law360 (May 28, 2020, 10:12 PM EDT) -- A Seattle federal judge made an educated guess this week that civil and criminal jury trials in the Western District of Washington will likely not resume until at least 2021 due to the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

In a letter Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour told counsel in a shareholder suit accusing Zillow's board of directors of allowing an illegal co-marketing deal that it is "the considered view of most judges" in the district that jury trials will be canceled until next year because of the public health crisis.

Judge Coughenour said his own courtroom is having trouble figuring out how to set it up so that social distancing guidelines can be followed during in-person proceedings. He also noted that he is "not confident" that potential jurors will, or should, respond to jury duty summons before they are convinced it is safe.

But the judge said he would try to maintain existing case schedules as best as possible. He said that, in granting future continuances of trial dates, he will keep current pretrial deadlines unless there's a good reason to extend those deadlines.

"This will ensure that trials are efficiently resolved once in-court proceedings are safe for the parties, counsel, and jurors," Judge Coughenour wrote.

In the instant case, which was filed in October 2017, the shareholders claim that Zillow maintained an illegal arrangement in which lenders paid for a portion of agents' advertising costs in return for mortgage referrals. Judge Coughenour in late February denied a bid to dismiss the suit, finding that the majority of the directors may have been biased.

On Tuesday, the parties in the case were instructed to prepare a joint status report to give the judge an estimate of how long the trial will need to be, how soon they can be ready for trial and whether the parties intend to mediate, according to court records.

The Western District of Washington, which covers the Emerald City, Bellingham and Tacoma, is situated in one of the areas hit hardest by the deadly virus, which forced the court to become one of the first to stop in-person proceedings until at least August.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court made a similar decision this week to delay all state court jury trials until at least Sept. 8, while the Northern District of California postponed or vacated all new criminal jury trials set to begin through June 30 and new civil jury trials scheduled to commence through Sept. 30.

Other courts, however, have decided to take the plunge and reopen.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania announced it would end the statewide judicial emergency order closing courts on June 1, which follows the New York State Unified Court System's decision to begin the gradual reopening of in-person operations in 30 upstate counties that have met Gov. Andrew Cuomo's coronavirus safety benchmarks.

The Zillow shareholders are represented by Duncan C. Turner of Badgley Mullins Turner PLLC and Brett D. Stecker and James M. Ficaro of The Weiser Law Firm PC.

The directors are represented by Matthew D. Ingber, Joseph De Simone, Kelly Kramer and Stephanie C. Robinson of Mayer Brown LLP and Sean C. Knowles and Ronald L. Berenstain of Perkins Coie LLP.

Zillow Group Inc. is represented by James P. Savitt and Brandi B. Balanda of Savitt Bruce & Willey LLP.

The case is Sciabacucchi et al. v. Barton et al., case number 2:17-cv-01568, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

--Additional reporting by Reenat Sinay, Sarah Jarvis, Chris Villani and Khorri Atkinson. Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.

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