Court Connect is an innovative, new program where participants can appear for hearings online rather than coming to the courthouse in person. For online hearings, attorneys and parties are notified and receive an Online Hearing Notice email with joining details. To participate in a Court Connect hearing, a computer or smart device with a web camera, speakers, and microphone is required. If these aren't available, teleconference attendance via the provided phone number in the Notice is acceptable. For more information download our Participant Guide.
E-Courtrooms provide advanced technology for judges, lawyers and litigants in many Maricopa County Superior Court courtrooms.
The audio and visual systems in the E-Courtrooms are controlled by judges and staff.
Flat-screen monitors can be activated for jurors and spectators.
The sound can be muted during bench conferences and listening enhancement devices can be activated for the hearing impaired.
Litigants and attorneys control evidence and presentation display systems and can draw, write or highlight any image on the screen.
Each courtroom is equipped with an Evidence Presentation System that includes computer connections for laptops, touch-screen monitors, a document camera and a DVD player.
Monitors are mounted on the judge's bench, witness stand and counsel tables. The audience can view the proceedings from two large monitors that hang from the ceiling in some courtrooms.
Studies have found that high-tech court proceedings can cut trial time for a civil case by 25 percent. Prior to the use of high-tech courtrooms, litigants were limited to presenting evidence by displaying sketches, photographs and case documents on easels or by passing them to jurors to view individually.
The new technology allows lawyers to use laptops and a touch screen computer to simultaneously display and annotate evidence on the monitors in the jury box and around the courtroom. It is an easier, more effective way to litigate a case.
E-Courtroom technology opens the justice system and trial proceedings instantaneously and globally outside the courthouse. In the future, some trials may be broadcast over the Internet.
