Litigators are feeling their way through the world of remote court hearings one session at a time as shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic stretch case delays into a second month.

Many attorneys have questions about the unknowns of switching from a face-to-face process where everyone else joins a judge in court to a virtual space where everyone picks their own surroundings.

Who knew lighting and background noise would be issues? It turns out those are only two of the small uncertainties attorneys must anticipate — and hopefully well before the remote hearing is scheduled to start.

Some attorneys offer their takes on quick change for a buttoned-down profession that's been forced by circumstance to break the mold.

Lee Stapleton, Carlton Fields, Miami

Stapleton joined a Court Call telephonic hearing in Collier Circuit Court commercial litigation with other lawyers from Collier and Broward counties on a motion to stay the case filed in 2018 due to the coronavirus. The phone session was before her first Zoom video training session.

"The thing you have to be careful about is there are no visual cues when someone is about to speak," she said. "There can't be a robust back and forth and verbal jostling."

That led to a more formal process with the judge cuing the next speaker in the 30-minute hearing.

No one could see her, but Stapleton prepared as if she were in the courtroom 125 miles away.

"This judge does not allow lawyers to wear fragrance in her courtroom because she's allergic," she said. "I dressed, put on makeup and jewelry, but no perfume, not even a scented candle. I didn't want any bad aroma karma over the phone lines."

Bobby Shannon Jr., Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, Atlanta

"At this point I have done eight Zoom depositions, a large mediation, half-dozen video meetings. My opinion is that it works, but we have had numerous problems where we have had to work around the issue — court reporters dropping off, losing the video of the witness, lawyers dropping off and we didn't know it, time-zone confusions, exhibit and video use, multiple objections where people are stepping on each other, etc."

He finds the remote video sessions useful but thinks they have their limits.

"Generally it can work, but I wouldn't use it on key depositions with a large number of participants," he said.

John Scott Black and Richard Daly, Daly & Black, Houston

Black and Daly were set to start a civil bench trial Wednesday on the Zoom platform in Harris County, Texas.

"It's definitely going to require a new set of skills," Black said. "We're used to handing documents to the clerk. We're used to looking the witness in the eye. It's tough to get a sense of the room in a video conference."

On questions of access and security, Daly said, "As long as someone can't hijack the presentation, we'll be just fine. Courtrooms are supposed to be open to the public, so if strangers are able to see the feed and watch the trial, then I think that serves the interests of justice."

Cameron Bonk, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Miami

Bonk joined a Zoom hearing on a post-trial motion for pre-judgment interest and costs in a health insurance case that went to trial last year before Broward Circuit Chief Judge Jack Tuter. The other side objected based on the difficulty of proceeding on the video platform, but the judge went ahead.

"You have to be mindful of what the court is dealing with right now,"  she said. "The last order that the court put out was very aggressive about what would be heard virtually and by Zoom, which was literally everything except jury trials." 

Bonk worked with two monitors and wanted to make sure she wouldn't look distracted on the Zoom feed.

"I actually went and got an external webcam for my second screen so I would be looking at the same place the camera was," she said.

Tuter received documents in advance by email. Since he was working during arguments without a law clerk, Bonk suggested, "Be ready to email the judge cases that the judge requests during the hearing."

Annie Gamez, Holland & Knight, Miami

Gamez was part of a two-day bench trial on Zoom in an international child abduction case before U.S. District Chief Judge K. Michael Moore in Miami.

"After you got used to it, I would say it was not as difficult as I anticipated," Gamez said. "What was key here I think really was planning, preparation, testing things ahead of time, making sure you were familiar with Zoom, going over it with witnesses."

After her first experience, she sees a future for remote video hearings.

"I think that we may be seeing a little bit more of this," Gamez said. Not jury trials, "but for other more streamlined proceedings I think that whenever it's doable, you might be seeing a lot more of that."