Ga. Supreme Court's First Zoom Arguments to Run Monday Through Thursday

For the first time since the new coronavirus pandemic emergency started, the Georgia Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week—but like a lot of things these days, they won’t look the same.

The justices will consider appeals of several murder convictions plus, a personal injury lawsuit against a sheriff over a deputy’s car crash and a legal malpractice case against an appellate lawyer. It sounds like business as usual. And the arguments will be livestreamed on the court website, as always. But instead of sitting together on their bench with the lawyers arguing before them, the justices’ faces will show up separately on a Zoom teleconference call, as will the lawyers arguing.

Chief Justice Harold Melton extended the statewide judicial emergency April 6. The new order runs until May 13, extending by a month the one Melton signed on March 14, which was due to expire April 13. Both orders close the courts to all but essential functions in order to control the spread of COVID-19. At the same time, the courts are ordered to remain open to deal with matters that are critical or “essential” to protect the “health, safety, and liberty of individuals.”

Melton announced on March 27 that the court would hold its first ever oral arguments by videoconference next week. “We are committed to continuing the court’s business with as little disruption as possible,” Melton said then. “Thankfully, we now have the technology that makes this possible.”

Starting Monday and continuing through Thursday, attorneys will argue 19 cases before eight justices, who rather than being seated on the bench in the new Nathan Deal Judicial Center, will be seated for the most part in their homes. Only Melton will take his seat on the bench in the new courtroom. The court will use the videoconferencing service called Zoom.

“This is a first for us,” Melton said. “So please be patient if we run into some technological glitches. Hopefully, it will go off without a hitch. That is our goal.”

The high court won’t be the first one in the state to Zoom in.

Judge C. LaTain “Tain” Kell of the Cobb Superior Court called his intermediate drug court to order March 25 while sitting at the bench in an empty courtroom wearing latex gloves. The session lasted until the battery on his cell phone died. And no one spread any virus. Drug court participants, counselors and staff had all downloaded the Zoom video call app on their smartphones and joined a meeting that Kell hosted.

“We’re trying something new here today,” Kell told the group. “But the point is still the same. We’re here for you.”

The Georgia Court of Appeals will soon follow, Judge Stephen Dillard (@JudgeDillard) said Friday by tweet. Dillard said the Fourth Division, which includes himself and Judges Brian Rickman and Trent Brown, will hold oral arguments via Zoom on May 5, 2020, at 10:30 a.m. Those arguments also will be posted to watch on the court’s livestream.

Many other courts of last resort around the country either are doing the same or soon will, Chief Justice Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court said Friday. He is chairman of the National Center for State Courts and president of the national Conference of Chief Justices. The Center for State Courts said Friday that those in Arizona, California, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia have used videoconferencing technology to gather justices and attorneys. Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Wisconsin and Wyoming have announced they will be using video technology for their upcoming oral arguments. Several other states either have (Alaska, Missouri, Vermont, Virginia) or soon will (Connecticut, Nebraska) use teleconferencing for oral arguments. In most cases, either live audio or video feeds of the hearings are made available to the public, with some courts providing a recording shortly after the proceeding is completed.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has required many adjustments to the justice system,” Hecht said in his opening remarks of the first remote hearings held by the Texas Supreme Court. “Rather than proceed without argument, we have decided to proceed through remote connections.” Hecht said he anticipates that the surge to videoconferencing brought on by the coronavirus is forever changing how courts do business. “I can’t imagine that it’s not going to outlast the pandemic and change the way we do business generally, pretty profoundly,” he said.

Meanwhile, the duration of the pandemic remained uncertain. Georgia public health leaders forecast a peak in early May. At noon Friday, the total number of cases rose to 17,194, with 3,324 people hospitalized and 650 deaths, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health COVID-19 Daily Status Report.