PART 14: VIRTUAL JURY TRIALS AND THE APPLICATION OF MURPHY’S LAW

On this Super Sunday 2021, your SDL remains very much still socially distant. No pigs-in-blankets or high-carb snacks on the menu this year. Again, 2021 much like 2020, not so good. Yet, in 2021 the Supreme Court of New Jersey is intent on conducting virtual trials starting in February on smaller and less complicated cases.

Just as a reminder, our courts have instructed all attorneys not to be overly harsh in comments concerning the judicial system. In that vein, the SDL will restrain himself on the issue of virtual jury trials with a bit of fair observation.

As the SDL understands it, the court’s plan is to distribute Samsung Galaxy tablets to all virtual jurors for at home use during trials. No, I am not kidding (sorry, that may be a little harsh). Let’s just take a limited view of “what can go wrong” with this plan. What if the tablets fail during the testimony, run out of charge, have connection problems to the internet, or maybe users view questionable websites? In my New Jersey home, I have a major internet provider that has constant problems and provides a connection that routinely needs to be reset. Let’s multiply internet and connection problems by a of jury of eight (with alternates) and see how that goes. Respectfully, the specific law our court system must revisit when it comes to jury trials is “Murphy’s Law.”

The SDL is compelled to point out the obvious. During the entire period of the pandemic, the New Jersey court system has resisted instituting an “old-school” settlement program. Specifically, this is where a judge would get involved in facilitating settlement negotiations and stay involved on a constant and recurring basis. By “involvement” the SDL means, at the very least, weekly communication with parties and counsel to make sure cases can move to a resolution. Of course, this approach won’t settle all cases or clear the court’s massive backlog.

However, on this Super Sunday, which plan would you bet on to be more successful? An intensive full court press to settle cases or an unknown virtual jury plan with dubious safeguards and extremely complex issues? I bet on common sense.

Anyway, speaking of Murphy’s Law, let’s go NY Giants in 2022!