MORE GUIDANCE FROM JUDGES ON PREPARATION AND ADVOCACY IN REMOTE HEARINGS: “WEAR PANTS, SEQUESTER PETS”

I started the day with a look at guidance for remote hearings.  As is often the way more useful guidance came out this morning in Bloomberg Law “Wear Pants, Sequester Pets: Five Tips From Judges for Zoom Court”.

THE GUIDANCE

The guidance is from judges throughout the USA.

“LOOK THE PART”

“Dressing properly means wearing professional attire from head to toe, not just head to waist. You never know when you’ll need to stand up in a pinch, which can make for an embarrassing moment if you’re wearing shorts…”

FIND AN APPROPRIATE SPACE

” If a lawyer dares not to use a virtual background, they should remove any inappropriate books or magazines”

USE VIRTUAL CONTEXT CLUES

““It’s as important as ever to pay attention to the judge’s signals, so if you are talking too long, be ready to wind up,”

BE AWARE OF THE RECORD

“Recently, she heard an oral argument where a lawyer’s audio “sounded like he was in a wind tunnel,” and everyone on the video call wanted to hold their ears.”

PRACTICE AND PREPARE

““In videoconferencing, if you’re not careful, the standards of the profession can drop and it can get too informal and too lax,”