This week, we were able to listen in on an interview with Mike Fontaine and Scott Miller. Scott Miller, who is a judge, detailed the process of court during the pandemic; since in-person meetings have been largely suspended, court sessions are now being held over distanced video calls.

He explained that this process is being held as similarly as possible to a real session, but that a significant change is the use of the mute function. Since callers are dialing in from remote locations, each caller is able to be muted by the Judge, who has full administrative privileges over the call. Court sessions, particularly for families, tend to include fighting to some extent. This tends to escalate to callers talking over each other. Since Zoom isn’t able to transmit as much information as an in-person meeting would about body language and tone, it can be difficult to navigate a court session. This is why, for the first time, court sessions are regularly being held over Zoom, and judges like the Honorable Scott Miller are able to mute those who are speaking up out of turn.