HANCOCK COUNTY — Some court proceedings will be streamed live over the internet as early as this week after the Indiana Supreme Court issued guidelines to improve access to the courts during the pandemic.
County judges already have been using video conferencing to conduct business and reduce traffic in the courthouse. Now, an order signed by Chief Justice Loretta Rush authorizes local courts to use platforms such as YouTube to keep the court processes transparent to the public. The guidelines do not relax the prohibition against public photographing or broadcasting of court proceedings; rather, they seek to ensure transparency while protecting litigants’ rights.
Local judges intend to follow the guidelines but expect they will take some time to implement.
“Thus far it’s been a slow pace just to get up to the virtual type of remote hearings,” said Judge Marie Castetter in Hancock County Superior Court 1.
She admits in getting prepared to go live, there is a lot to digest for her and her staff when they’re still trying to perfect other processes. Still, her court is hoping to do a live broadcast on a case as early as this week through YouTube and the secure computer program with which the courts are working.
Due to the security issues and wanting to go live, the courts have had to purchase a secure, more professional application program with Zoom, the popular video conferencing software. That is supposed to allow judges to simply push a button to send court proceedings to YouTube.
“We need to develop policies, give public notice and figure out how we’re going to handle these kinds of things,” Castetter said. “There are so many things we have to get into place, so we’re kind of at the early stages of things.”
The live-streaming rule does not preempt the Supreme Court’s longstanding ban on recording proceedings, meaning people can’t record the broadcast live for later replay. The courts have been told to include a “Do Not Record” watermark on each live-streamed proceeding. Hearings that are confidential by law will not be streamed.
Judge Scott Sirk, Hancock County Circuit Court, has already been utilizing streaming for court proceedings when it’s appropriate, but only for the parties involved.
Sirk has conducted pretrial conferences, guardianship hearings and Drug Court by video streaming with the Zoom app.
However, his courtroom is not yet equipped for a full public live-stream. But, he’s hoping that will happen soon.
“We have most of the equipment so we hope any additional cost will be minimal,” Sirk said.
Dan Marshall, the judge in Superior Court 2, said he doesn’t intend to live-stream activity in his courtroom because it’s already open to members of the public “as long as they exercise social distancing and proper precautions,” he said in an email.
If all goes well with the setup this week in Superior Court 1, anyone will be able to see exactly what is going on in a courtroom. Castetter thinks that could portend changes in how the courts operate.
“The way they’re pushing things with these remote hearings makes me feel like they think this might be long term,” Castetter said.
