Courts forced to accelerate years of innovation into weeks may never go back to how they did business before the pandemic, according to interviews with more than 30 state and federal judges, lawyers and court staff in 16 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The embrace of technology is a revolution for many courts that have historically resisted it.
“We’re going to be doing court business remotely forever,” said Nathan Hecht, chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court and co-chair of the National Center for State Court’s pandemic rapid response team. “This has changed the world.”
The benefits of video arguments are equally apparent in Houston. Lee Rosenthal, chief judge in the Southern District of Texas, said using video for arguments on motions, scheduling issues, and initial pretrial hearings in civil cases has been “surprisingly effective.”
