Access to Courts

See No Evil: Study Says Judges Don't Find Jurors Using Social Media

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The Federal Judicial Center has released a study which concludes that "detected social media use by jurors is infrequent, and that most judges have taken steps to ensure jurors do not use social media in the courtroom," and implies that juror use of the Internet and social media during trial is not a growing problem.

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Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children?: A Few Modest Thoughts on Mass. Senate Bill No. 785

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On February 7, 2012, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary of the Massachusetts Legislature will hold a hearing on Massachusetts Senate Bill No.

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CMLP Alert: Mass. SJC Rules on Impoundment of Inquest Materials in Amy Bishop Case

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On December 13, 2011, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that a judge of the Superior Court followed the wrong standard when denying a request by the Boston Globe for access to the transcript and report of an inquest into the death of Seth Bishop, the brother of Amy Bishop.

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D.C. Courts Fight the Future in New Rule Limiting Electronic-Device Use in Courthouse

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The Blog of the Legal Times reports that the Superior Court of the District of Columbia – the local trial court for the nation's capital – has issued a new administrative order regarding use of electronic devices in the courthouse.

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Federal Courts' Camera Experiment Rolls On

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After a slow start, the latest experiment of video cameras in federal courtrooms, announced last October, appears to be finally starting to roll.

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New California Law Prohibits Jurors' Social Media Use

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UPDATE: Two years after the law went into effect, California's Judicial Council recommended that the statute be repealed, saying that that the possibility of criminal sanctions actually impeded courts' inquiries into improper online activity by jurors. The criminal provisions were repealed in 2014, 2014 Cal. Laws chap. 99, although civil penalties remain.

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Cameras Roll in New Federal Court Experiment

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It lacks the drama of the various flavors of "Law and Order" or the intrigue of a John Grisham novel. But the video of a July 21 hearing on the plaintiff's request for a preliminary injunction in Gauck v. Karamian, Civil No.

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Announcing OpenCourt

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It is a fundamental principle of the United States legal system that courts should be open to the public.  This principle is widely regarded as more aspirational than factual, because of numerous practical barriers to courtroom access -- not the least of which is that most of us do not have the time or ability to travel to the court to witness proceedings in person.  While the news media report on judicial proceedings,

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