Tech is being mainstreamed across the judiciary---it’ll be permanently integrated post-COVID AND drastically increases efficiency.

The world as we knew it changed forever at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, precipitating a seismic shift in the legal industry, particularly in the conduct of court proceedings. The closure of businesses, restaurants, schools and government facilities rendered the in-person style of court hearings that we all knew as the normative practice no longer feasible.

Swift Adaptations in Response to Crisis

On March 9, 2020, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for Florida. Days later, the Florida Supreme Court suspended jury trials due to health and safety concerns caused by COVID-19. The suspension resulted in the cancellation of thousands of hearings and brought civil jury trials in Florida to an abrupt halt. With the judiciary’s functionalities being severely disrupted, the court was required to consider alternative ways to conduct hearings and jury trials while protecting the parties’ rights and the public’s health and safety.

Florida’s courts responded quickly and decisively. Just two months after the suspension of in-person jury trials, the court authorized the Remote Civil Jury Trial Pilot Program, through which trials are conducted via a videoconferencing platform “to establish the framework and identify the logistics of trying a case remotely.” Judges began conducting motions and evidentiary hearings via Zoom. In July 2020, Miami-Dade County conducted the state’s first-ever partial jury trial remotely, and in August 2020, the country’s first-ever complete remote civil jury case was tried in Duval County. In his annual message to the bar, Chief Justice Charles T. Canady wrote: “In a matter of days and weeks, all around the state, we introduced adaptations that many participants in the justice system thought they would never see in their lifetimes—and these modifications brought about sweeping changes in the way we all do our jobs.”

The chief justice concluded his message with the following:

Our response to the pandemic will forever change the way Florida’s courts operate. This experience has taught us a great deal that will benefit our courts system long after we are beyond the limitations that COVID-19 has thrust on us. I imagine that, in future years, when we look back on this difficult time, we will see that we planted seeds that helped our courts become more accessible, efficient and responsive. For instance, although traditional, in-person proceedings will remain central to the work of our courts, we have discovered that much work can be done through remote proceedings, which can significantly reduce the cost and burdens of litigation. Our new ways of doing things have been welcomed by attorneys and are very popular with many of those who come to the courts. Many challenges await us in the courts. But the same strengths I have seen in our response to the coronavirus outbreak will serve us well as we recover and resume.

Pros and Cons of Remote Proceedings

The most obvious and tangible benefits of remote proceedings are convenience and efficiency, which are interrelated. South Florida is more densely populated now than ever before, and our roads have the daily traffic to prove it. The routine of navigating through rush hour traffic for an hour or more in each direction from one’s office to a courthouse for what may be a five-minute motion calendar hearing is and should remain a thing of the past. Most nonevidentiary motion hearings can be conducted easily and effectively via remote attendance. The biggest benefactor of this transition may be clients, who are no longer expected to bear the hourly fees and expenses of their attorney driving to and from the courthouse, incurring mileage and parking costs, and turning what could have been a half-hour exercise into a three-and-a-half-hour ordeal.

Perhaps the only drawback to conducting routine motion hearings remotely is that the judges can no longer instruct the attorneys in a discovery dispute to “go out into the hallway” to work out their dispute. Some judges will instruct counsel to confer amongst themselves offline while they handle the rest of the calendar and will recall that matter after they have heard additional matters. Some judges have recently started to require that all discovery motions be conducted in-person as a means of discouraging parties from filing discovery motions in the first place.

Evidentiary hearings and trials are more complicated. Many judges and lawyers have become very proficient at presenting cases and dealing with evidence via remote platforms. The federal courts had already adopted various technological tools in the courtrooms for the presentation of evidence several years prior to COVID. Presenting evidence via Zoom is not very different than using the technology that already existed in those “smart” courtrooms. Yet, lawyers who may not be technically proficient often encounter difficulties presenting evidence on a remote platform, which causes delays in the proceedings. Judges and juries may not be able to evaluate the demeanor of a witness appearing remotely as they might have evaluated a live witness sitting a few feet away in the same courtroom. Not having a hallway outside of the courtroom may deprive some attorneys of the opportunity to step outside and confer with opposing counsel during a break in the proceedings to try to resolve certain disputed issues or settle the entire case. Other judges have recently started to require that all discovery motions be conducted in-person as a means of discouraging parties from filing discovery motions in the first place.

Balancing Tradition With Innovation

Over the last few years, the decline in COVID-19 cases and safety risks has been met with a gradual return to in-person court hearings. By April 2023, the court had terminated several of the previously issued emergency COVID-19-related orders. The Judicial Section Details portions of the website for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida states: “Courthouses are now open for in-person hearings and trials, based on public health advisories at the direction of the Florida Supreme Court.” Indeed, while most routine uniform motion calendar and nonevidentiary hearings are still conducted remotely, there has been a return to in-person court proceedings for evidentiary hearings and many trials. Some judges now require counsel to file a motion requesting leave of the court for an attorney to attend a hearing remotely.