RICHMOND – The court system has not shut down, but operations are limited and different due to safety precautions forced by COVID-19, 8th Circuit Presiding Judge Kevin L. Walden said. Walden discussed reopening phases for the court and asked related questions of the Ray County Commission and Health Department. The Supreme Court suspended in-person court action through May 15, he said. “I have been conducting some court by video, particularly with prisoners in the jail,” Walden said. “Within the last two or three weeks, we have extended the invitation to lawyers and litigants that, if the parties are agreeable to do a proceeding by video, the judges are available to do that.” Commissioner Jerry Bishop asked whether jury trials would occur online. “I was wondering how that would work,” Bishop said. “Right now, no,” Walden said. “The phasing-in (process) does allow for the theoretical possibility to have some jury trials in the most critical-type cases – I don’t know that we have…