This week, I was lucky to be able to attend Part Two of the San Antonio Bar Association’s running Continuing Legal Education speaker series on Zoom Jury Trials. The speakers at this week’s installment were four attorneys that have personally taken part in Bexar County Jury Trials via the Zoom app.
As one might expect, the exercise of trying a case via zoom is vastly different than our normal in-court procedures. What did surprise me, though, was how much each of the attorneys actually really enjoyed the process. In the San Antonio legal community, there has been a lot of fear and uncertainty about this type of trial. It was refreshing to hear from lawyers who have now actually had the opportunity to take part in this new era of trials and assure the rest of us that as a whole it was actually a very smooth process.
One aspect that I was happy to hear about was that in each trial, there are actually two judges present. One judge who acts as the judge that actually presides over the case, and another judge whose role it is to make sure that all of the jurors, witnesses, etc. are abiding by the rules of the court. In particular, they want to make sure that these people are not only paying attention, but that they are not using any outside sources to do independent research on the case (i.e. on their phone, tablet, etc.).
The attorneys that presented not only described their experiences with Zoom trials but were gracious enough to give several helpful tips to their colleagues regarding the subject. One simple tip that I found especially helpful for virtually anyone that uses zoom is that you can mute and unmute yourself by simply pressing the spacebar on your keyboard. While I have not tried a case via zoom, I have handled several dozen hearings via zoom and this truly is an invaluable tip. In hearings, it can be distracting to the Judge if you keep yourself unmuted during the entire hearing since there are usually multiple parties present at one time. The ability to be able to mute and unmute quickly (for example to make an interjection or objection) makes the process much easier.
The lawyers also talked at length about making sure that all of your exhibits and documents that are to be submitted to the court are in the proper format (whether written or video) and readily available in an easy to access folder on your computer. There is nothing more embarrassing than trying to submit a document in the middle of trial to find out it is a word document and not a PDF! Similarly, the lawyers encouraged all of us to practice practice practice with our clients and witnesses that will be testifying in court. This is a new process for everyone, so making sure that your clients are tech savvy enough to be able to keep up in a trial is extremely important for the flow of your case (and keeping the judge happy). Thanks again to SABA and the attorneys that led this speaker series!