Lockdown should not be an impediment to several services continuing to operate as usual. One is healthcare & maid service Chicago. You can think of food supplies as being essential. Another is law and the legal side of society. These cannot be put on hold but concerns about spreading infection can force litigants, lawyers and judges to stay away from courts. Lawyers refuse to meet clients. Paperwork comes to a halt. Cases lie pending. This need not be the case when telepresence video conferencing allows legal professionals and courts to carry on with their work in a normal way while observing distancing norms and rules in place.

Telepresence video for legal lets you do everything necessary

Telepresence video conferencing has all the features that lawyers, judges and others connected with the legal profession will need to take legal matters forwards.

• Today’s telepresence video conferencing offers high definition video with jitter free technology for uninterrupted streaming without annoying breaks or lags.
• Those participating in the conference can make use of smartphone and its camera-mic, a laptop or a webcam-microphone. This makes a difference in that the person conducting the legal proceedings can see each individual participant clearly and also switch to an overview to see and hear everyone on one screen. This is a vast improvement over the early standard definition video systems where clarity suffered and views were limited.
• What makes today’s video conferencing software perfect for legal proceedings is that documents can be shown on screen and included in the proceedings as happens during a court hearing.
• Since movement is restricted it is difficult for lawyers to consult with their clients. Video makes it easy to have in-depth discussions between two people or between several people who may all be in different locations.
• The entire proceedings, whether it is a courtroom trial or lawyer-client interaction, can be recorded. Witness testimonies so recorded may be taken on record.

A leading practising High Court advocate was of the opinion that there is no need for courts to suspend operations due to the Coronavirus emergency. Video telepresence software can take care of distancing and conduct of proceedings. “I myself use video conferencing to talk with clients and prepare briefs based on such discussions,” he said.

Current technologies do not require the use of dedicated hardware for video conferencing. It can be set up in minutes by including desktop computers, laptops and smartphones. Individual participants simply make use of the browser and join the legal proceedings as judges, lawyers, plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses. Vendors are ready to provide the software and set up such conferencing facilities for the courts at short notice and it certainly needs to be adopted in the current situation.

Video conferencing could become standard operating procedure

Video conferencing does make a strong case for itself for use in legal industry in the current crisis but it could also become a standard procedure in future. Courts benefit and so do law firm as well as litigants.

Benefits of telepresence video conferencing solution for legal industry

Video conferencing offers a host of benefits for everyone in the legal industry.

• Witnesses, litigants in legal proceedings: It is no secret that a lot of time goes to waste as litigants and witnesses must wait for proceedings and even then when the matter comes up the judge may declare an adjournment. For litigants who must travel from distant cities or villages, it constitutes a waste of time, considerable expenditure in travel and accommodation and loss of income. By letting them participate from wherever they are located, video conferencing does away with all that waste.
• Witness depositions can be recorded and taken as testimony.
• Courts: Judges need not spend time in travel and in stuffy courtrooms and be exposed to risk of infections. They can handle more cases as productivity improves with telepresence video conferencing solutions. They can address a virtual online courtroom or they can choose to converse privately during the ongoing session. Video makes it possible. Proceedings can be kept private by inviting only those involved.
• Legal firms: Legal firms can maintain smaller offices as most of their legal and paralegal employees work from home and compile documents or case studies and then get together for a video conference to discuss matters. Law firms can cut costs and get more work done.
• Video lets you see the individual and their surroundings. It is a form of verification too.

Video conferencing for legal industry is safe, secure, time saving and an effective way to keep wheels of justice turning during the lockdown. Legal firms and governments need the right vendor who can setup a solution in less than a day and then provide support whenever needed.