Webinar: "Justice through the Internet? Virtual court hearings in the United States and Poland"

[ENG description below]
Nagranie weminarium z sędzią Roy’em Ferguson’em i mecenasem Pawłem Lewandowskim na temat posiedzeń sądowych online: "Sprawiedliwość przez Internet? Posiedzenia on-line w USA i Polsce".
Sędzia Roy Ferguson - od trzech kadencji orzeka w jednym z największych powierzchniowo okręgów sądowych w Teksasie. Stał się znany na całym świecie za sprawą wideo z rozprawy, na której jeden z prawników pojawił się pod postacią… kota! Był to efekt włączonego przypadkiem filtru, którego mecenas nie potrafił wyłączyć. Link do video z kotem: • Kitten Zoom Filter Mishap
O doświadczeniach z udziału w posiedzeniach online w Polsce opowiedział mecenas Paweł Lewandowski - lider praktyki procesowej kancelarii Domański Zakrzewski Palinka, wyróżniony m.in. w rankingach Global i Europe Chambers w kategorii rozwiązywania sporów.
Spotkanie poprowadził Bartosz Pilitowski, prezes zarządu Fundacji Court Watch Polska, socjolog prawa, laureat nagrody Polskiej Rady Biznesu za działalność społeczną oraz absolwent programu "International Visitors Leadership Program" Departamentu Stanu USA.
Webinarium mogło się odbyć dzięki wsparciu Ambasady USA w Warszawie. Dziękujemy!
Wspieraj nas: courtwatch.pl/...
[ENG]
In the next webinar organized by the Court Watch Polska Foundation, with support from the US Embassy in Warsaw, we discussed the experience of conducting online judicial hearings with Texas Judge Roy Ferguson and Polish attorney Paweł Lewandowski.
Since 2012 Judge Roy Ferguson has presided over the 394th Texas Judicial District Court, one of the largest districts in the state. For years now, because of the district’s size, the Judge has been encouraging the use of the Internet for communication in the Texas legal community. He became famous a few months ago after a clip from a hearing went viral in which one of the attorneys mistakenly turned on a Zoom filter making him appear as a cat on the screen and couldn’t turn it off. But luckily Judge Ferguson, thanks to his extensive experience with online hearings, managed to help out the cat-attorney and yet also maintain the dignity of the judicial process. Immediately the video spread around the globe with a whopping 3 billion views on the Internet and TV stations. The Judge agreed to talk about the circumstances of this cat-incident and share his experience and advice on how to manage a virtual courtroom using modern technology.
Online hearings are also becoming increasingly popular on the other side of the globe, in Poland, and Polish lawyers and judges are now adapting to this new reality. To get a perspective on the Polish experience with virtual courtrooms we were joined by attorney Paweł Lewandowski - a leader of dispute resolution practice in the law firm Domański Zakrzewski Palinka who has been recognized by the Global and Europe Chambers rankings.
We hope that the webinar exposed participants to the nuances of online court hearings, allowed for the exchange of advice from both an American and Polish perspective, and also answered the question whether virtual hearings are just a temporary pandemic solution or are here to stay. If they are to become permanent, then what can be done to ensure that these new technologies don’t impede the carrying out of justice?
We invite judges, lawyers, court journalists and all those who are interested in how justice systems operate to listen.
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The meeting was hosted by Bartosz Pilitowski, the chair of the Court Watch Polska Foundation, a legal sociologist, recipient of the Polish Business Roundtable’s Award for Social Engagement and an alumnus of the US State Department’s International Visitors Leadership Program.
Court Watch Polska Foundation is an independent non-profit organization whose goal is to improve the functioning of Poland’s justice system through civic engagement in the judicial process, research, analysis and education about the right to have one’s day in court.
Donate now: courtwatch.pl/...
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Napisy / Closed Captions: Samuel Shannon

[@394thdistrictcourtoftexas-5]

It was a great pleasure joining Fundacja Court Watch Polska and getting to know more about Poland and its justice system. Let's do it again soon -- this time in person! You may be amused to know that on the one-year anniversary of Lawyercat, I released the end of the video showing the filter come off and our faces revealed. You can see "the rest of the story" at kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6u6d3h8Z5tqoM0