Online Seminar: Tips for Conducting Remote and Hybrid Hearings with Self-represented Litigants

 

When? Thursday, January 20, 3:00 pm ET

Addressing the digital divide. Communicating scheduling changes. Providing legal information in layman’s terms on court websites. Managing the waiting room. Since the start of the pandemic, courts across the country have adapted their processes to allow for remote and virtual proceedings. Join us for the next discussion in a series of webinars focused on best practices for engaging with attorneys and self-represented litigants in remote and virtual hearings.

A 50 State Court Covid-19 Operations List

  

The Justia legal information company has posted a compendium of state court Covid-19 operations in all 50 states.

They write that “State court systems across the country have significantly altered their operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Many courts initially limited proceedings to only the most essential and urgent matters, such as arraignments and restraining order hearings."

"While most jurisdictions are beginning to resume at least some of their normal operations, courts often are still striving to conduct as many proceedings remotely as possible. Jury trials are suspended or limited in some locations, although most states at least have planned strategies for resuming them.”

Click here to access the guide.

Congratulations to Justia for providing this useful resource. 

--

Also thank you to the US Federal Courts news for posting the picture of Chief Judge James K. Bredar wearing a plastic face shield and sit behind plexiglass when jury trials resume in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland that we show above.

https://www.uscourts.gov/news/2020/08/20/courts-restore-operations-covid-19-creates-new-normal

 

Courts on the Go

 

Legal technology writer Molly McDonough posted an article about the Utah Outreach Court (https://twitter.com/saltlakejustice). That court takes a courtroom to the litigants, in some instances to the homeless person's campsite, using a repurposed mobile command center vehicle and tents.

Smoke Tests Protect Courtroom Air From COVID-19

Published by press release on March 4, 2021, in US Courts News

"Even as vaccines begin to protect the public from the coronavirus (COVID-19), one of the Judiciary’s biggest priorities is ensuring that the air inside courtrooms and hallways remains safe as courts schedule more in-person legal proceedings.

Some Ideas for Handling the Upcoming Covid-19 Case Surge

 

Everyone can easily foresee the surge of in-person court cases that are coming later in 2021.  Many courts have put case processing on hold.  And assuming that the vaccination program will be successful in the first half of the year, what can courts do to address the case backlog and new matters that will come?  I have some ideas that I will share below.

Please also note that my colleagues and friends of the NCSC have created a tremendous resource around courts and the pandemic at  https://www.ncsc.org/newsroom/public-health-emergency  Click on the Statewide Plans to Resume Court Operations link (you may have to scroll across the red navigation bar to find it).

 

Explaining Why Court Tech Seemed to Move Slowly in 2020?

 

Recently I heard multiple legal technology writers bemoan the slowness that courts adopt and implement new online and similar services.  I explain why that is, and why it is likely not to get better soon in this post? It is going to be a cold winter.

Tips to Reduce Ransomware Risk and More…

 

 

In this post we share tips to protect you from malware, Harris County’s new Covid-10 juror procedure video, the new Zoom language interpretation service, and a web page showing how Covid-19 aerosol dispersion works.