What we can learn from Texas Family Court to Conduct Zoom Proceedings


What we can learn from Texas Family Court to Conduct Zoom Proceedings

A lot. Here are some links to what the courts in Texas are doing to meet the physical shutdown of the courts due to the Corona virus.

They are proceeding with some full hearings with witnesses using Zoom sessions hosted by the Court, and they are maintaining the open public hearing nature of the proceedings by streaming to YouTube.

Here is a link to TV coverage of what they are doing:

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/texas-judges-will-be-able-to-conduct-court-online-as-coronavirus-spreads/269-7e34fe91-24cd-46ae-9964-f6be80af4fc5

This is a resource page on how to make Zoom Court proceedings work which is very good:

http://www.txcourts.gov/programs-services/electronic-hearings-with-zoom/

Here is a link to a recording of two judges and a senior family law lawyer about what they are doing to conduct urgent matters. I would suggest getting a coffee and watching it.

Stay healthy.

We are all in this together.

Bill MacLeod…

How to Present Applications to Court When the Physical Court is Shut Down


How to Present Applications to Court When the Physical Court is Shut Down

Recent Experience with Conducting an Electronic Trial Using “CaseLines” Technology

-MacleodLaw in collaboration with Kate Gower of Gower Modern

Our experience conducting an electronic trial using the English cloud-based software CaseLines was quite positive as posted in detail here on our blog. Our trial using this software was the first to use it in North America, although it is very well established in the United Kingdom. It allowed the successful adjudication of a complicated trust and professional negligence action which otherwise would have been extremely difficult to manage due to the complexity of the issues and the volume of the material considered by the Court.

The savings to the parties from the use of this software were on the order of 25% of what a normal trial would have cost due to the savings in time at trial in handling documents and in the savings in preparation of binders of paper documents for use by the parties.

With current court shut-downs from the Corona-virus pandemic the advantages of the CaseLines software in allowing more efficient electronic based hearings may be of great assistance to all parties and the court. The use of video software such as Skype or Zoom plus software such as CaseLines is allowing the Courts in the UK to proceed with a wider variety of proceedings than are currently feasible in British Columbia. Now is the time for all good litigators to come to the aid of their clients by asking the courts to make use of these tools to allow access to justice even in these difficult times. See reference.

About CaseLines:

CaseLines is the most advanced system in the world for digital evidence management and court presentation. The system is used in the UK Supreme Court, Civil and Public Law cases and in the Crown Court Digital Case System across England. CaseLines now holds in excess of 45 million pages of evidence in the cloud, and is used daily by over 20,000 users, including more than 1,000 members of the judiciary.