The Judge Will See You On Zoom, But The Public Is Mostly Left Out
When Spencer Clauson, a student at Tulane University in New Orleans, signed up to be a volunteer court watcher earlier this year, he expected to sit in courtrooms to help track things like the bonds set or the race of defendants. It’s how the nonprofit group Court Watch NOLA gathers data on the decisions judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys make.
But Clauson recently found himself on a speakerphone call, struggling to follow along as a judge on the other end of the call ran court using a separate video conference platform—a new reality in courts across the country as they have shut their doors and moved online in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“When I was in court, I could hear all of the [public] defenders, the defendants, and really have a pretty cohesive understanding of the case. That was definitely not the case on the phone,” Clauson said. On the phone call, he understood only about a quarter of what was said—mostly
