FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Announcing the formation of THE ONLINE COURTROOM PROJECT

 

In an era of social distancing, how do we stay together to ensure that justice is still done? How can we protect our constitutional right to be judged by a jury of our peers if we are required to stay physically apart? How do we ensure our constitutional access to justice when some courthouse doors are locked? Is justice possible when parties, witnesses, and even triers of fact appear online? These are pressing questions for our legal system and our democracy.

 

The Online Courtroom Project (“OCP”) is a not-for-profit advisory task force comprised of trial consultants, litigation researchers, and litigation technology professionals to bring our unique expertise to the legal profession’s current conversation about how best to conduct civil and criminal litigation – from pre-trial matters through bench and jury trials – online.

 

Our daily work involves applying the insights of social science and the tools of technology to trial preparation and trial, helping attorneys and their clients understand how jurors and judges make decisions. Our members are all veterans in their field. We have worked on thousands of trials, arbitrations and mediations, designed thousands of juror questionnaires and talked with tens of thousands of mock and real jurors over our many years of work. We include members who are experts in survey research; mock trial research; post-trial interviews; communication; anthropology and sociology; and technology.

 

The mission of the Online Courtroom Project is to preserve criminal and civil litigants’ Constitutional rights to a trial through the use of innovations, reforms, and technology. The OCP will serve as a resource for and engage in dialogue with the judiciary and legal associations, to develop best practices based on what we currently know, and to design and execute research to find out what we need to know.

“We know we are facing unchartered territory and complicated issues, but there are a lot of available resources and practices that point the way to providing solutions to the current justice bottleneck, and even improving practices in the future,” says Richard Gabriel, President of Decision Analysis, who initiated the group. “As an interdisciplinary group, we plan to bring thoughtful but expedited approaches to researching and recommending best practices for online hearings and trials. We look forward to working with the courts and the legal community on finding the best way forward in this uncertain time.

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The OCP is inviting judicial and legal associations working on these issues to reach out, to see how we can all combine our experience and expertise to solve the immediate and longer-term challenges of bringing justice online.

 

For more information, please email Richard Gabriel at: rgabriel@decisionanalysisinc.com

 

To follow the progress of the project, please visit our website: onlinecourtroom.org

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