SALT LAKE CITY — Defense attorneys should be first in the legal world to get a COVID-19 vaccine, some Utah judges said Monday.

"Frankly, these aren't our employees, but if you ask me who really needed vaccination on my team, I would say it's the public defenders," 2nd District Judge David Connors told fellow members of the Utah Judicial Council.

Connors said the lawyers, who represent many in jail, are facing "real serious questions about whether they can interact with their clients."

Utah's inmates, for their part, are not set to be inoculated in mass until March.

The coronavirus has spread rapidly in several of the state's county jails, where defense lawyers typically visit defendants to discuss their cases and prepare a defense. Although jailers have restricted the meetings, many continue to take place within the facilities, with glass separating attorneys from their clients.

Jury trials are on hold across most of the state as infection rates remain too high to safely hold the proceedings in person. And while a limited number of court hearings are happening in courtrooms, most are being held online over videoconference.

Utah Court of Appeals Judge Kate Appleby on Monday wondered aloud whether the state could arrange vaccines for those set to serve jury duty at a later date.

"If there were a way to do that, I think it might advance the cause of getting our jury trials going," Appleby told fellow members of the judicial council.

In the meantime, hundreds of criminal cases are piling up in Utah as attorneys resist all-virtual criminal trials that they say could violate a person's rights. The Utah State Bar, however, is working on a pilot program to follow other states in holding fully virtual jury trials in civil cases like contract disputes or medical malpractice claims.

Utah State Courts Administrator Mary Noonan said she is planning to make the case to Rich Saunders, the interim state health department director, that judges and courts staff must be considered essential.

"We're the third branch of government" Noonan said. "No other sector can step in and advance the constitutional rights of individuals in the same way that the judiciary does."

The sooner the courts employees are inoculated, the sooner courthouses can return to something akin to normal, noted 3rd District Judge Barry Lawrence.

"It's clearly not as important as the health care workers, but it's up there," Lawrence told the council, which is the legislative arm of the state courts system.

But several of his colleagues said they're not persuaded they should be among the first to get a vaccine, contending those who interact more directly with the public should come first.

In Utah's juvenile court system, the court-appointed attorneys are voicing the biggest concerns about meeting with clients and keeping distance, said 2nd District Juvenile Judge Michelle Heward. They are "just so essential to what we're doing," she said, voicing support to place them at the front of the line.

"That would be great," Richard Mauro, executive director of the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association, told KSL.

Related:

Utah's inmates set to get vaccine in March under tentative state plan

Utah's inmates are slated to get the coronavirus vaccine in March, part of a second wave following medical workers, teachers and patients in long-term care facilities.

Many of his attorneys continue to go to the jail to work with clients, believing it's the most effective way to communicate, he said. Others in high-risk categories have had to make use of alternatives like phone and video calls.

Mauro estimates there are now between 300 and 500 cases now set to go to trial just within Salt Lake County.

Many could end in a plea deal, but defendants in large part haven't had a chance to appear before a judge in person to challenge evidence or witnesses. Their attorneys want those hearings to happen in person so they can effectively cross-examine those on the stand.

"We just have more and more cases falling into the backlog," Mauro said.

Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings agrees that defense attorneys should get the vaccine before prosecutors, whom he said are still essential workers but can meet with victims and others more easily over video calls.

"I think it makes sense we prioritize those in the criminal justice system who have higher interaction," Rawlings said.

Investigators in his office, however, fit that category. They are interviewing inmates in jails and are out in public making arrests.

Jury trials are a critical component of the criminal justice system, Rawlings said. He compared their absence to the Utah Jazz trying to play the Denver Nuggets without an actual basketball anywhere on the floor.

"We're hopeful," he said, "that the vaccine provides a pathway sooner rather than later to the resumption of jury trials."

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