The Challenges of Holding Live In-Person Trials During the Pandemic

A shout-out to the Judges, deputies, law clerks, court reporters, interpreters, marshals, and other courthouse personnel around the country who are trying as best they can to make in-person trials work.  The first in-court criminal trial during the pandemic was just completed this week in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  

The bottom line is this -- as challenging as it is to make trials happen with juries and witnesses live in the courtroom, there is simply no substitute for being in person.  

Any trial lawyer will tell you that reading a cold trial transcript is immensely different from experiencing a trial in the courtroom.  The energy, the intensity, the drama -- none of it can be replicated via Zoom.  In court, you can see and hear the expressions of witnesses, the Judge, and the jurors.  

So courthouse personnel across the country, keep up the great work to allow safe, in-court trials to continue until the pandemic is behind us.