By Nathan Hale

Law360 (April 19, 2021, 4:07 PM EDT) -- The Florida Supreme Court announced expanded and streamlined public access to remote state court proceedings Monday through the Virtual Courtroom Directory, a website where users can find virtual hearings as well as livestreams of in-person trials and oral arguments.

This offering is the latest adaptation the courts have made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year, which saw proceedings shift almost entirely online.

"Florida's courts continue to meet the ongoing challenges of the pandemic," Chief Justice Charles Canady said in a statement. "The Virtual Courtroom Directory offers safe access to proceedings statewide. People have a front-row seat into our courts from wherever they are, and they can see that justice continues even in challenging circumstances."

The system, which is already running at Courtrooms.FlCourts.org, allows users to search courts and sort by judge, hearing officer or proceeding type. Actively streaming courts are listed as "Live Now," and users can click through to be taken to each court's streaming service, according to the announcement.

Proceedings will vary by court, but examples include first appearances, arraignments, criminal pre-trial hearings, violations of probation, criminal and civil trials, and appellate oral arguments, according to the Supreme Court.

Four judicial circuits — covering Bay, Broward, Leon and Miami-Dade Counties — as well as the Supreme Court and the state's five District Courts of Appeal are currently active on the directory, and others will be added as they become available, the court said.

Many of the courts use a Zoom-to-YouTube feature to livestream, and they will offer closed captioning for the deaf or hard of hearing within the current technological capabilities, the announcement said.

"The move toward more virtual proceedings is a major historical shift in state court operations, which have relied heavily on in-person hearings in the 175 years Florida has been a state," the court said, noting the significant shift that has taken place under special administrative orders the chief justice issued that expanded the authority of judicial officers to hold proceedings remotely because of the pandemic.

Between March and December 2020, more than 1,700 Zoom licenses were installed for judges, court officers and staff, and more than 400,000 Zoom hearings were held involving 2.6 million participants, according to the court.

The court credited the use of these tools for Florida trial courts being on track to dispose of 2.8 million cases in the 2020-21 fiscal year.

Florida is not the first state to implement this sort of virtual directory — Indiana, Michigan and New Jersey are among those that already have similar setups — but its courts have historically been at the forefront of introducing technology to increase public access to the tradition-heavy halls of justice.

In the mid-1970s, the state became the first to allow cameras into courtroom, ending a ban that started in the 1930s. Florida state courts also were early adopters of the Internet, with the Florida Supreme Court launching its official website in 1994 and starting livestreams of all of its arguments in 1997.

Supreme Court spokesman Craig Waters described the project in an email to Law360 as a work in progress that is expected to grow as more courts build up the necessary technology and skills. Archiving of videos is a possible future feature but depends on technology upgrades and budgetary constraints, which have been a drag, especially during the pandemic, he said.

"It seems clear now that our state courts will move into a post-pandemic future in which at least some types of remote virtual proceedings will remain as an important part of Florida legal culture," Waters said. "This is unlike the situation before the pandemic hit, when virtual proceedings seemed like a starry-eyed dream."

--Editing by Gemma Horowitz.

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