For a long time, Judge Michael Christofeno just didn’t see a place for online hearings in his courtroom.
“I needed to see people in person in my courtroom or I wasn’t going to be able to have the capability to get a sense of how they’re testifying, their demeanor, whether they’re telling the truth or not, whether they’re being candid with the court,” says Christofeno, a circuit court judge in Elkhart County, Indiana. He was also concerned about operating and maintaining control of hearings in an unfamiliar medium.
但是，当该县希望重新开放冠状病毒大流行的法院时，法官的意见发生了变化。这是全国各地的问题。纽约时报recently报告在纽约监狱中，被指控的人一直在苦苦挣扎，在某些情况下，该病毒感染了该病毒，而大流行期间只进行了少数审判。克里斯托弗诺说，即使是民事案件的参与者也被焦急地等待他们在法庭上的日子。
“You’ve got divorce cases, and people want to get on with their lives, and you can’t be hunkered down not conducting court forever,” he says.
埃尔克哈特县（Elkhart County）最初试图通过电话举行听证会，但发现他们花了两倍以上的时间，迅速创造了积压。法官还反对无法真正看到并与之前有案件的人建立联系。
6月，县法院开始通过视频会议进行听证会。为此，官员turned to Cisco，，，，maker of Webex video conferencing tools and high-end telepresence software, to install cameras and other equipment in the courtroom. The tech company’s Connected Justice system, which was designed specifically for remote court, includes in-courtroom cameras to capture witnesses and evidence, file- and screen-sharing for documents, and breakout rooms for unrecorded attorney-client conversations or sidebars with the judge. Adopting the software enabled the county’s civil, family law, and even some pretrial criminal proceedings to take place with most of the participants connecting remotely.
在埃尔克哈特（Elkhart）和其他司法管辖区，并非所有程序都遥不可及。对于刑事审判，通常认为州和联邦法律可以保护面对面审判的权利。西北大学罗德里克（Roderick）和索兰吉·麦克阿瑟（Solange Macarthur）司法中心执行董事洛克·鲍曼（Locke Bowman）说：“有权对您的指控者进行对抗。”
即使对于这些审判，埃尔克哈特县也依靠互联司法系统。为了防止病毒，陪审员位于法庭上，因此他们与法官，证人和彼此之间的距离恰当。然后，他们配备了iPad，让他们使用思科的软件来数字检查和访问法庭的摄像机，使他们能够放大以查看人们的面孔作证。
但是，许多官员和律师说，如果法院听证会在大流行期间进行，特别是为了保护那些特别容易受到该病毒的攻击的人，这是必要的。“总的来说，我是虚拟法院的责任，但是鉴于目前的情况，我认为这是完全必要的，尤其是在新的激增中，”路易斯安那州执业的残疾人权利律师Amitai Heller说。
But remote court has never been tried before on so large a scale. The effect of going virtual for people in the court system is still largely unknown, especially because they’re that much more removed from judges and even their own attorneys. Some之前的学习have suggested there are worse outcomes for some court participants when they appear by video, including defendants at bail hearings and people involved in immigration proceedings.
“I think a lot of the power our clients have is looking a judge in the eye and having a judge have to look them in the eye and see what they’re going through, and it’s just not the same when they’re on video,” says Hannah Adams, a staff attorney at路易斯安那州东南法律服务，民事法律援助组织。
The long-standing U.S.digital divide这会影响谁可以舒适地工作，上学并与家人建立联系的人，同时练习社交距离也适用于偏远的法院。目前，找到获得优质的互联网连接的访问权限和使用舒适的地方对某些人来说比其他人更容易，他们可能会影响谁可以轻松与法官和律师交流。
“We’re as anxious as the customers are to understand what the results of this will be—that data is going to be extremely important to society as a whole,” says Daniel Stewart, senior justice adviser at Cisco, who predicts scientific studies of the results of remote court are still at least a few months away.
In the case of court proceedings, the quality of one’s internet connection can potentially affect who can efficiently advocate for themselves in the virtual courtroom, even now as judges seek to be understanding of everyone’s circumstances. Adams says at least one justice of the peace in Louisiana has been dispatching a constable with an iPad to the homes of people who’d otherwise have trouble connecting to hearings, but the practice isn’t standardized throughout the state.
“The actual ability to connect without glitches, without lagging, does create different tiers of credibility I would imagine,” says Heller, the disability rights attorney. “Or just your ability to have a narrative that’s coherent and continuous—that’s really hard when you’re chopping up all the time.”
在许多情况下，大流行使法院和整个社会中已经存在的不平等现象成为人们关注的焦点。它强调了保释系统的不公正现象，人们可以在监狱里被关押充满19案例什么时候他们没有被定罪仅仅因为他们无法发布保释。
视频会议当然不会消除系统的所有问题。但是法庭的参与者和技术供应商说，某些决定可以帮助使远程诉讼更加公平。思科的斯图尔特说，一些法官想确认他们能够使用模糊或通用的背景来保护自己的房屋和诉讼人的隐私。在使用工作空间中使用真空吸尘器的视频会议演示中，思科高级副总裁Jeetu Patel展示了该软件如何自动滤除背景噪声。使用Cisco的技术或其他轻松支持此类功能的工具也可以帮助隐藏参与者的个人生活的细节，这些细节可能会损害法官或在法庭上感到尴尬。
克里斯托弗诺法官说，他认为远程系统实际上可以通过使参与者更容易出现来提高正义的访问。人们不再需要休假一天并找到交通工具才能出现持续不到半小时的听证会。这个问题早在大流行之前就存在，当时人们被迫在工作和避免经济损失甚至什至刑事指控这可能会导致失踪的强制听证会。
埃尔克哈特县IT主任马修·迪茨（Matthew Dietz）说：“我们以前的做法确实具有破坏性的方式，因为我们如何与公民的生活互动。”
即使是在多个法官面前出现的律师也不再需要花时间从法庭冲向法庭甚至县城到县席位。实际上，埃尔克哈特（Elkhart）法院现在进行的听证会比大流行之前的更多听证会，使他们从切换之前清除了积压。Christofeno认为，允许人们通过视频会议与任何地方的视频会议联系，可以使法院更容易获得。他说，因此，他认为即使在大流行限制方面也将继续进行一些远程诉讼。
他说：“不仅应该是你有很多钱，所以你可以上法庭去看克里斯托弗诺法官。”
Once people begin to gather in person once again, some participants may welcome the continued ability to appear for quick hearings from their homes or workplaces rather than making a physical trek to the local courthouse. For some types of hearings, though, it seems likely that many attorneys will advocate for themselves and their clients to return to the physical courtroom when they feel it’s safe to do so. And certain court proceedings—especially criminal trials—will likely never move online, since the principle of being able to confront and cross-examine opposing witnesses in person is simply seen as too vital.
“我认为可以想象可以通过Zoom或其他一些技术远程进行陪审团的审判真是太疯狂了，” Northwestern的Bowman说。“在我的判断中，在没有身体的情况下，我的判断并不完整，这是一个真正迫使该人进入公共场所并坐下来提供证据并受到公共盘问的机会。”