Judge, I’d like to make a record.
Making a good record is essential to the justice system. Attorneys, litigants and higher courts rely on being able to review an accurate record. So with the increasing trend of attending court virtually, Courts must really begin to consider the impact allowing people to attend court virtually may be having on court reporters and the completeness of the record.
This is an important consideration that each Court needs to address as we continue designing better virtual courts. Court reporters have a hard enough time keeping track of who is saying what in the physical courtroom when people talk over one another. Now imagine the difficulties they have when virtual participants become animated and begin talking over one another or when they try to object.
At least in the physical space, the court room is likely set up properly so that the court reporter can see everything and then go back and isolate the voices at a later time. But in the virtual setting, the Court may not have selected a video conference platform that utilizes separate audio channels for each person who is speaking. The Court may not have even contemplated that this may be an issue.
So TODAY here are a few questions I’d like you to ask yourself. Does your video conference platform offer separate audio channels? Do you keep the record locally or in the platform’s cloud storage? Is it backed up? Is it encrypted? Does it provide real-time transcription?
