Zoom court is interestingOh, Zoom court! I just can’t quit you! Lawyers have had a… hard time adjusting to the new virtual world. Let’s review: there was the lawyer caught shoveling food in his face while on camera, another responding to a judge with “sneaky b***h,” the classic having sex on camera during a hearing, or the disturbing sharing your racist views with the world when you thought you were no longer recording, and it’s been a lot. Even with vaccine rollout rapidly picking up pace, the benefits of online court proceedings are real, so we don’t expect them to stop any time soon.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the latest Zoom court debacle. A Michigan man was set to be sentenced after entering a plea for having no insurance and driving with a suspended license. He appeared in court, from the inside of car… in the driver’s seat… and yes, he still had a suspended license.
Judge Jeffrey Middleton called out the defendant for his unpaid fines, and yeah, he noted the whole appearing-in-court-from-the-driver’s-seat-while-having-a-suspended-license thing:
This isn’t the first time Judge Middleton and APA Davis have gone viral for their legal work. As a writer on the internet, I admire the clicks the pair has generated. In their last brush with acclaim, Davis was the prosecutor who noticed something was amiss during a hearing in an assault case, and it turned out that defendant was appearing at the hearing FROM THE VICTIM’S HOUSE, despite having a no-contact order. In that case, Judge Middleton immediately revoked bail, and had the defendant taken into custody.
