Virtual Courtrooms: Concept & Overview

Abstract

A virtual courtroom is one which need not exist anywhere but electronically. Using internet technology, a courtroom can be configured without requiring parties to spend a fortune on additional hardware and software. Professor Frederick I Lederer wrote in 1997, 'The Courtroom is a place of adjudication, but it is also an information hub. Outside information is assembled, sorted and brought into the courtroom for presentation. Once presented, various theories of interpretation are argued to the fact finder who then analyses the data according to prescribed rules (determined by the Judge through research, analysis and interpretation) and determines a verdict and result. That result, often with collateral consequences is then transmitted throughout the legal system as necessary. The courtroom is thus the center of a complex system of information exchange and management. Ultimately, because lawyers and judges deal continuously with 'data', high technology courtrooms exist and virtual courtrooms are possible.'(1) We are living in a technological age that is increasingly dependent upon computers and related information technology. The legal system is changing. Most of the nation's lawyers, judges, legal administrators, and support personnel long ago adopted word processing, electronic legal research, time and billing programs, and, increasingly, varying forms of case management software. Electronic filing, already in use in a number of courts, is a topic of discussion in many jurisdictions. We are on the road to the virtual courtroom. Unless we take an intentional early exit elsewhere, our final destination is clear. The virtual courtroom is unlikely to replace our traditional courts and tribunals buildings in the near future, but even those traditional places of law and judgment will see increasing amounts of virtual evidence and adjudication. However, we have the opportunity, as we travel, to build some high-technology side roads leading to specialized virtual hearing rooms and courtrooms.