#TBT - Did The FutureLawyer Invent Online Teleconferences?

Note: I have been advocating online hearings and court proceedings for many years. It took a Pandemic to make it happen.

Zoom Teleconferencing - The FutureLawyer Has Been Ready For 13 Years.

I am smiling at all of the excitement being engendered by the breathless fast moving of the Courts to video teleconferencing because of the current pandemic. Please. The ability to hold conferences and hearings over the Internet has been around for years. As an example, the Futurelawyer wrote this post on April 22, 2007:

"I have often wondered why lawyers and judges weren't using freely available video conferencing tools for hearings, and conferences as a regular course of doing business. My free Skype account sends and receives video from my cheap little video camera that plugs into a USB port. Why can't other lawyers do the same? Now that Google has purchased a video conferencing software company, maybe the landscape will permit a commercial player to tap this market. In the meantime, if you want to SEE me when you chat over Skype, plug in a camera, and let's go. We can have hearings without a Judge. I guarantee that we will both win. Except that you will have to look at me in my home environment without a few cups of coffee in me, and a silly grin on my face."

Yes, that is a young FutureLawyer mugging for the camera in my home office. We didn't know anything about virtual backgrounds then, so the background is a little busy. But, I have been preaching to the choir for years about using this technology to save on gas, travel and time. As many are now finding out, Judges and lawyers can do a fine job of getting their argument across without being in the same room. I feel a little like the farmer welcoming home the prodigal son.