Video hearings became commonplace when the COVID-19 pandemic closed courts to all but necessary hearings last year. While courts have been returning to normal in-person hearings in some cases, lawmakers have expressed an interest in continuing to conduct some hearings remotely.
During this year's legislative session, lawmakers considered House Bill 551. The original version of the bill required inmates to appear virtually from jail for arraignments, bond hearings and hearings such as pretrial conferences, and allowed virtual appearances for plea agreements, sentencings, evidentiary hearings and hearings on probation, diversion or contempt of court. A modified version of the bill allowed, but did not require, jailed inmates to appear virtually for any hearings.
The bill was approved by a committee, reassigned and set aside for discussion during the interim between legislative sessions.
Interim Judiciary Committee Co-Chairman Rep. Ed Massey, a Hebron Republican, said the issue would continue to be discussed beyond Thursday's hearing.
Circuit Judge Jamie Jameson, of the 42nd Circuit of Calloway and Marshall counties, said jails and courts had to figure out how to do video conferencing during the pandemic.
"It's inconvenient for all of us," Jameson said, but "I think the advantages are there."
For example, doing some criminal hearings remotely protects law enforcement by cutting down on prisoners being transported from one county to another for hearings, he said.
Not transporting prisons virtually eliminates the possibility of an inmate escaping, he said.
District Judge Karen Thomas of Campbell County said the pandemic "created a lot of opportunities" for how courts can conduct remote hearings, but added, "We all have our virtual court horror stories.
"We are not quite there yet with the technology," Thomas said.
During one hearing when the courtroom's internet failed, "I even had to use my cell phone as a hot spot" to conduct a hearing, she said.
Circuit Judge Patricia Summe, chief circuit judge in Kenton County, said judges don't want to be mandated to conduct certain hearings remotely.
"If someone is being arraigned ... I don't want to be told I can't bring that person into my courtroom," she said.
Laurie Dudgeon, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, said lawmakers put almost $11 million into the court system in the last budget to upgrade courtroom technology for hearings and conferences. That money will be used to upgrade more than 400 courtrooms across the state, she said.
Of the current technology, Dudgeon said, "right now, it's not easy for judges to use."
Dudgeon said a recent survey found most judges support having virtual hearings in some civil matters, but there was much less support for doing criminal hearings virtually.
Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a Hopkinsville Republican and co-chair of the committee, said remote hearings should be available for litigants who want to appear that way instead of in person.
In civil cases, "if a litigant wants to appear remotely, it's dumb to not let them do that," he said.
Westerfield also said allowing people to appear remotely would "save cost, save time and frankly improve participation among litigants."
Courts are still struggling with COVID-19, Dudgeon said.
"We feel, from the administrative side, we are still very much in a pandemic," she said. "We have people testing positive every day."
Courts often don't have the personnel to handle technical issues with remote hearings, and jails "were never designed to have remote hearing rooms," she said.
Westerfield said he would support providing more funding for court technical personnel to handle problems with technology. In criminal cases involving prisoner transports, he said doing some hearings remotely makes sense for jails.
"Instead of having to fiddle with a transport, you're having to fiddle with a camera," he said.
Dudgeon said state Chief Justice John Minton supports creating a task force with all parties, including jailers, sheriff's and advocates for access to justice, to study how to proceed with remote hearings.
© 2021 the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
