Connected Courts - Let's do Better

While I think of myself as adventurous and having a bit of fun, I do not want to find myself in the court systems. But I find myself in the court systems today with my collaboration role helping create a better experience for the judge, attorneys, witnesses, and even the defendant. To help understand what it is like out in the wild west of virtual courts, I went down the rabbit hole and to my surprise, it was absolutely fascinating what goes on from state to state in the court systems and virtual hearings.

Why Virtual Courts?

Virtual courts became popular and essentially required when the pandemic hit. Legal proceedings were halted in the court rooms across the country. They were cobbled together with a meeting platform, camera/codecs and then pushed out as quick as possible. In the last 4 years, these court rooms have kept the technology around and are now just realizing there is more to be done. For example, now that the pandemic is over, virtual courts still exists because the genie was let out of the bottle on how more efficient courts could operate. Inmates do not need to be transported from the jail to the court room where they could now have a video unit in the holding area and plead the case to the judge virtually. Sounds great right? Well... lets dive into where it is today, as its not great, but just getting by.

The Setup

Virtual courts have someone been convinced that these proceedings are just like a regular video conference meeting at the office where the court room is a board room and the inmate at the at the holding area of the jail is a hybrid worker. Don't believe me, lets take a look at examples.

New Jersey Courts has their website updated live with which courts are streaming the hearings. When you click on the link, it embeds a live stream from Zoom of the hearing going on. View here: https://www.njcourts.gov/public/channels

The interesting items for me were the following:

• The use of virtual backgrounds for the judge and attorneys (why not be in the courtroom and inmates remote?)
• The camera quality or angles of the inmates at the holding areas of the jail. It was hard to see their expressions or body language. (Far angle shots, angled in a way that was looking down on them or even from the side, distractions in the background, etc.)
• There were other inmates in another holding area on the call awaiting the next hearing. Almost as if they were on standby or next virtually. (distractions for the current hearing while note focusing on the defendant).
• I will say it was easy to join.

Lets move to Rhode Island... well lets not move there but check it out virtually. Their court website uses a live stream company called www.dacast.com. Not one of the streams would work. https://www.courts.ri.gov/Pages/PublicAccessCourtHearings.aspx

Heading on down to Georgia (hopefully not with the devil).. Fulton County in particular will live stream to YouTube the hearing. Again, this is another odd live stream as its basically showing static camera shots around the court room.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrdF6Eq3kovemYy9m6mWbwg/live

• It is not a good experience for remote participants.
• The audio quality was subpar (while it is youtube)
• Side-view of the judge's face.
• Attorneys who are walking around are not being seen. (or head is cropped off)
• SE Podium is speaking, but cant see anyone.
• SCA gallery is very small

Heading out west to the great state of Colorado. Their setup has a very quick way to view live streams with a navigator on the right side that pops extremely quick.

https://live.coloradojudicial.gov/

• The ease of access is amazing
• In this example its Webex powered, most likely embedded SDK into their website. (hats off to who put this together)
• The camera angles are still awkward. We see "nose" shots, wide angle view, hard to see facial expressions, body language, etc. While these are meant to be used for live court proceedings, they may also be used for virtual courts.

Enough of the examples, how do we do better?

From the rabbit hole I went down, here is where the courts are today:

• Tech debt is most likely the reason of where it stands today.
• Complicated video systems within the court room and poorly setup.
• The classic "round peg in a square hole" approach. "We use platform X for meetings and must use this for virtual court"
• Live streaming is all over the board. From Youtube channels, Vimeo or having to join a meeting platform and be admitted in to view as a participant. How many clicks do you have to click to get to a stream?
• ARPA funds were rushed, waay over spent and now there are no more ARPA funds. The courts are back to their budgets and IT staff to make the jump to new technology.
• Camera angles matter. Read that again. If you are standing over someone talking down to them, its the same feeling on camera. Nor do I want to see what is up your nose.

The Framework to be better

Everyone one of my LinkedIn connections who know me will say... "Here he goes jumping on to the Cisco bandwagon". Let's develop a framework for best practices and not from manufacturer or vendor recommendations.

Ready?

Of course your team is ready, but my best advice is to lean on folks who are driven by experiences and solutions first and technology second. Ensure you are planning for a technology refresh within 4 years or less this means what you physically install today, should be easy to swap out later with minimal facility remediation. Feel free to reach out and let me know how we can help you plan for the next wave of virtual and connected courts! Need a bit more, find what ePlus inc. has been deploying in the courts around the US. One fine example is in the state of North Carolina. We helped develop the Courtroom Audio Video Experience or CRAVE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBdCnvnhukQ Currently there are over (200) courtrooms deployed by the ePlus team across North Carolina.