Virtual Courts and Virtual Clerkships
posted by Miriam Cherry
One April Fool’s day when I was in law school, I decided to play a prank on some of my friends / fellow law students. I told them that my fiance, who was a computer scientist (but who hung around the law school quite a bit), was changing careers and had accepted a position as a “virtual clerk.” Friends had a lot of questions about this. What exactly did being a virtual clerk entail? Could you really perform your job duties without a law degree? How much technical knowledge was needed? And how exactly did you apply?
I explained that when you are a virtual clerk, you do whatever the circuit judge asks. Whether that’s typing “oyez oyez” to bring the virtual court into session, or ruling on objections as “bits” of testimony are streamed over the internet, you are not “shocked” at any request, and in fact, perform it rather robotically.
They got it, and laughed at having been taken in initially. It was an April Fool’s joke in 1998 that was full of hopelessly bad puns (sorry). But today, would such a thing really be considered that much of a joke (er, the virtual clerkship, not the bad puns)? There are all sorts of electronic media being used in courtrooms, more workers are telecommuting, and I’ve seen advertised that there are even online ADR competitions nowadays. So maybe my silly joke wasn’t really that far off the mark. Or was it?
June 14, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Posted in: Humor
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Responses (2)
John Armstrong - June 14, 2006 at 9:32 pm
How would a virtual court square with a defendant’s right to “face” his accuser?
Ryan - November 10, 2006 at 6:41 pm
I wish this were true. But I think the monopoly that lawyers have on the legal system will last for some time. It’s been possible to settle court cases over the telephone for some time, but as convenient as that would be, few places have done it. (California lets you contest traffic tickets through the mail.)
The law will remain inefficient because lawyers want it to be that way, and judges rely on the imposing nature of the courtroom.
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