Fair enough. You're appearing before them still, and I'm not right now.
What I would say is that it appears we're giving a bit of short shrift to the decision itself. Paragraphs 69 to 71 of the decision in Jordan talk about exceptions and extenuating situations. It wasn't as if the judges crafted the rule to be ironclad. At the end of paragraph 71, they indicated the following:
Ultimately, the determination of whether circumstances are “exceptional” will depend on the trial judge’s good sense and experience. The list is not closed. However, in general, exceptional circumstances fall under two categories: discrete events and particularly complex cases.
To my mind, and I'm wondering what your opinion is, wouldn't the pandemic be considered an exceptional circumstance?