Brian Barakat of Barakat Law in Coral Gables in a recent Zoom trial. Courtesy photo.

When this South Florida commercial landlord-tenant dispute went to a bench trial amid COVID-19 court closures, the parties could only forge ahead online.

But now, this remote litigation has proved to be a boon for clients, who no longer have to pay witnesses to scale the state, search for parking or wait for hours in a hallway.

And attorney Brian Barakat, of Barakat Law in Coral Gables, hopes post-pandemic litigation will adapt.

Stay-at-home orders prompted the Florida Supreme Court to temporarily suspend rules requiring all parties to agree before witnesses can appear via video conference, but Barakat says the success of online litigation could make those rules redundant.

"It is my hope that when we come out of this pandemic that rule will be changed forever, and allow the court to make a decision whether they wish to accept testimony by video conference without the agreement of another side that maybe just wants to just delay the matter," Barakat said. "This has saved a great deal of money for the clients."

While the key players will probably always want to attend in person, Barakat said perhaps others should have a choice.

"For third-party witnesses, particularly ones that live far away, there's a real value in using this technology that's been here for quite a long time to make the administration of justice more efficient," he said.

Barakat teamed with Jordan Lewin of the Lewin Law Group in Coral Gables to represent barbershop Wild Card Men's Haircuts of Florida LLC, sued by its landlord Kendall Square Mall LLC after a joint build-out project turned sour and its tenants canceled the lease.

Shutts & Bowen attorneys Matthew Chait and Sean Smith in West Palm Beach represented the landlord but declined to comment. The barber shop countersued, alleging it lost out on profits because of delayed opening.

The trial lasted two days and featured about 110 exhibits and five witnesses, according to Barakat, who said it would have been a different story if it was business as usual.

"I feel certain that had this trial had been conducted in a courthouse it would have taken longer, and it would have been a larger inconvenience, particularly for the nonparty witnesses, than it was," Barakat said. "Nobody had to wait at all. We texted a witness, he clicked on his computer and turned away from whatever work he was doing, from South Dade, North Dade, Sarasota or Broward, wherever people were chiming in from."

Of course, there was one participant with a sound problem, caused by calling in through a phone and computer simultaneously. But Barakat says he's discovered a hack.

"If you wait until after the meeting has commenced and you join, you'll receive a participant ID, and you can call in from your telephone with your AirPods," he said "That is the best quality sound."

The atmosphere was collaborative and visual aids took center stage in the litigation, Barakat said — now that no one's wheeling in a television, projector or giant cardboard cut-out — though it's important to consider that each participant might have a different sized screen.

"I think the judge and the parties were much more focused on the documents than they were on the witnesses," Barakat said.

"Most of the trial there was a document on the screen, and although everybody's face was also on the screen, I think the attention was more turned to the evidence than on the face of the witness.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Spencer Eig presided over the case and has yet to rule.

Read more:

Get Used to Online Litigation: It Could Become Florida's New Normal

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