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Video Transcribed: I am Tulsa Fathers Rights Attorney, this is part of my series, I’m doing a bunch of stuff on COVID-19 here in Tulsa County, how the court is kind of responding.
Things have changed a lot. One of the key elements of that is use of teleconference and video conference in order to accomplish what would’ve been a regular court proceeding. There are some rules regarding use of video conference.
They are set forth in Title 12, Civil Procedures section, Rule 34, titled Video Conferencing in District Courts. And effectively, the Supreme Court and the legislature has codified this.
The Supreme Court has enabled courts to use these processes so far as they meet legitimate due process concerns. And I’m going to go over some of that so that you kind of understand what you’re entitled to at one of these video conferences if you have one.
One, your entitled to the same manner of proceeding, meaning that the checks on evidence admissibility, the confrontation of witnesses, the procedures of argumentation and presentation of evidence, all of these things are going to be conducted in the same fashion.
You’re still going to have opportunity to direct a cross examination, make opening and closing arguments and limiting arguments. All of these things will be conducted in the same fashion, they’ll just be done via video.
The other important thing here is that your not going to a court room, but the court room is coming to you. So anywhere you are on these video court dates is an extension of the courtroom. So you’re in court in your own home or in your lawyer’s office or wherever you are doing this thing.
The oath is still binding. So you’re in court. I mean, your oath is still an oath. It’s not any different just because you’re located outside that courtroom.
The court reporter does not to be present on location with you. Okay. So what that means is the court reported can be located remotely and doing it separately from everyone else or could be located with one of the party’s or potentially with the judge.
There are other concerns involved, but the rules tend to alleviate any concerns you might have about the location of the court reporter. Not entirely, obviously, because the court reporter is trying to, in real time, transcribe all of the communication.
So with the distances of video teleconference type electronic use, there may be what we call static or a disruption in the connection of communication between one source and the receiver.
So obviously, technical difficulties exist and we may have to bear with some court reporters, maybe make sure that they’re getting it down if they need it down or something glitches or something like that.
The same is true of interpreters. You’re going to have to basically bear with them if they’re not present with the actual person, there may be a little bit of a delay, your interpreter may need to kind of qualify things and there is an allowance for private communications between people, which I’ll get to, which is another guarantee for this role, allowing for video conferencing.
There are some minimum requirements that have been set forth as minimum requirements, which means that they’re pretty much bearing on the due process of it.
Participants shall be able to hear and see each other simultaneously, which means in real time you should be able to see everything. It should be like you’re in court, like you can look at somebody and see what they’re doing. You can appreciate their verbal and nonverbal communication.
Participants shall be able to observe evidence. The same guarantee is true of evidence. You should be able to fully appreciate the evidence that’s being presented by you or against you and that would mean that you were able to see, hear, maybe not touch, things that were going to be used.
Now if you were to want to get access to some piece of evidence prior to because there would be a diminished ability to perceive a piece of evidence over video, then that would definitely be something, an accommodation, that a judge would make for you.
Participants shall allow for demeanor and nonverbal communication. So the video quality and the sound quality actually have to be sufficient enough that you can appreciate if someone’s mad or if someone’s happy or if you think someone’s lying because ultimately, credibility is an important factor here.
And so we really have to be able to watch people’s behavior while they testify in order to determine whether or not we trust them.
Location from which the trial judges shall be accessible to the public to the same extent as if it were not video. That’s an interesting rule. I’m not sure that they’re going to be following this one to a T because what they’re basically and effectively saying is that where the judge is, is still public.
Meaning that people could go and watch the judge. People could review the court process, which is public as long as it’s not a sealed proceeding.
And I’m just not sure how they’re going to ensure this one if they are locking things down because of COVID-19 and not allowing people into the courtrooms, limiting people’s presence in the courtroom, et cetera.
Parties and parties attorneys shall have access to private communications. So like I was saying with interpreters and court reporters, will have access… Well court reporters less so, but will have access to private communications.
And what that means is you can talk privately, just as you would be able to in courtroom, without it being on the record. So despite the fact that everything is being recorded.
So actually effectuating this may require that you take a step up and get out of the camera view or turn your mute on, so that people can’t hear you and you have a conversation.
And it’s really important to ensure that when you are trying to have a private communication that that’s actually occurring and you’re not leaving the sound on or in view and people are seeing things because once the cat’s out of the bag, the cat’s out of the bag. You can’t take it back.
So that was a brief video of several minutes on the video rule, some minimum guarantees.
I hope that answers some of your questions about what the video process is going to be like.
If you have any questions about the rule or use of the BlueJeans software, which is what the court is intending to use for these, just give me a call. Let me know. I’d be happy to help you and have a nice day.