Time To Bring Our Courts Into The 21st Century
November 2007
What should Chicago lawyers look for in the upcoming O.J. armed robbery trial? Nothing from the lawyers, because we're smarter than they are. Now that we've all accepted that as fact we can move on.
Believe it or not, the facility. Take a good look at what we don't have.
The new Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas is claimed to be the first fully digital video-audio courthouse in the country, according to JAVS Technology, the company responsible for installing the equipment. JAVS installed cameras, microphones, mixers, evidence presentation equipment and video conferencing technology in each of the 40 courtrooms of the new $185 million-dollar building.
They'll need it to play all the audio recordings of O.J. demanding all of his stolen bubblegum cards back.
But what about the everyday legal actions, like the ones most of us handle, which do not involve former NFL stars who are acquitted after murdering people and then dumb enough to commit armed robbery years later? Do we need the advanced technology for those cases?
You bet. Maybe even more so.
Don't just think about computers. An entire generation has been a captive audience to the rapidly growing entertainment and television medium. Anywhere you look there is a screen of some kind displaying information. Now add to this all of the little screens -- the BlackBerries, the phones, and other computer equipment -- and you see how much waking time people spend in front of a video monitor.
Do you really want to then waltz 12 of them into a jury box and ask them to just sit there and listen to lawyers talk for days? Jurors will lose their minds. Many have already.
Think, too, about how much evidence is captured within seconds of an incident through a cell phone photo or video. We don't need the excited utterance exception anymore, since there's usually someone there live to catch the first profanity.
People reacted with horror years ago when someone chose to film a person burning rather than come to his aid. Now we have people trying get the video of Saddam's head spinning in mid-air before it hit the floor.
Are our local courts keeping pace with technological developments to allow for us to have these events displayed at the time of trial? Well, most are run by Cook County, so we have to factor that in. Currently we can show reel-to-reel film on the white wall under the clock, provided there are no big-headed jurors blocking the way.
So what's the problem, why haven't we stayed with the times? Money, most likely.
The General Assembly has been debating a multi-billion dollar capital bill for public works improvements throughout the state. Discussions for funding have centered around expansion of gaming in Illinois.
A sneaking suspicion is that the funding for the technological developments in the Las Vegas court came directly or indirectly from the gaming industry. How's that for a leap.
So give credit where it's due. They thought of the court system, something that doesn't get a lot of political bang for the buck. It's a boring improvement. But, with one of the largest court systems in the world (2.4 million cases filed annually), Cook County courts deserve a state-of-the-art technology boost.
Perhaps if such a capital bill were approved, in addition to new roads, funds could be set aside for the much-needed court improvements. But that might be a hard sell.
So can we add $100 to every case filing and update our courts?
Raising court filing fees can run into constitutional challenges on the basis that increases in fees deny some access to justice, a fundamental right. But if reasonable, fee increases could well stand.
In the early 1960s, the city council of Chicago passed an ordinance that increased 12-person jury demand fees from $12 to $100. A mandamus action was filed questioning the constitutionality of the ordinance. The supreme court held that the fees were not unreasonable, and the ordinance fixing such fees was therefore not an unconstitutional deprivation of right to trial by jury. People ex rel. Flanagan v. McDonough 24 Ill.2d 178, 180 N.E.2d 486 Ill. 1962.
An interesting statement the court noted from precedent on court fee challenges was that "no constitutional provision guarantees the right to litigate without reasonable expense."
Would it not be reasonable to have our courtrooms function as the everyday society around them? So we could raise the fees or wait for surplus money from new casinos. Or wait until the county balances its budget and has spare cash to address updating our courts.
By that time, cigarettes will be $250 a pack and O.J. will be free again.
