Trial By Zoom

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RayThom
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Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:38 pm
Location: Longwood Gardens PA 19348

Trial By Zoom

Post by RayThom »

This is a bit unsettling to me. Technology gone wild.

If the jurors are in the courtroom there's a lot less distraction, and more focus on matters at hand. On the juries I sat on, I may have been bored but I paid attention.

Virtual court proceedings? I hate to think the juror might be sitting in front of his computer, stroking his Tabby like Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Maybe even pantsless. So much for decorum.
In Collin County, Texas this week, 12 jurors were selected and rendered verdicts in one day. Virtuwave Holdings sued State Farm Lloyds for allegedly failing to cover damages caused by a hailstorm.

It was a summary jury trial in which jury selection was conducted by way of video conferencing with over two dozen citizens who logged in using computerized devices. Once 12 persons were selected, evidence was presented in a courtroom to two panels of 6 jurors, who patched in remotely. Under Texas law, the final verdicts were advisory (and, in this case, polar opposites). From this, we learned a few things. Technical glitches are to be expected. Like jurors at the courthouse, home-bound jurors sometimes wander off during recesses. The trial also offered a peek into the attitudes of citizens about serving during a pandemic.

After the trial, jurors asked about their experience, including whether they would have been willing to appear in person if they had been told to report for a trial at the courthouse. The jurors split on this question, with 1/3 saying that they would have requested to be deferred, another third saying they would have appeared, and the last 1/3 noncommittal. All-in-all, the jurors were very positive about the experience. Several of them had previously served as trial jurors, and they noted that they were able to see the documents (emails, appraisals, cost estimates, etc.) much better when they were shared on the videoconference screen than when similar evidence had been presented in live trials."
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKBN22U1FE

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