Page 18 - CLT112320

18 ¦ NOVEMBER 23, 2020 NEWS

As Trump’s Federal Election Trial Goes
Silent, Courts’ IT Struggles Come Into Focus

By Victoria Hudgins

Ahearing in a Pennsylvania
federal court Tuesday re-
garding President Donald
Trump’s effort to block certifica-
tion of the state’s election results
ran into a problem that caused it
to delay proceedings for almost
an hour. The issue? No one could
hear anything.
The U.S. District Court for the
Middle District of Pennsylvania
previously set up a phone number
for anyone to dial and listen to
proceedings in Donald J. Trump
for President v. Boockvar after
Photo courtesy of the New York Unified Court System

limiting physical access to its Williamsport, Penn- for technical reasons we don’t know of and we are
sylvania, courthouse. But right from the start, the working closely with them to determine why.”
live audio didn’t go smoothly. To be sure, the Middle District did announce it
To be sure, the federal court’s IT glitch isn’t added 4,000 lines to the call-in phone number in ad-
uncommon. But courts that have gone virtual as dition to the 4,000 originally provided. While Welsh
a safety precaution during the pandemic are now said the court did reach the 4,000-limitation for the
discovering what true public access entails as first set, he wasn’t sure if they reached capacity on
their systems are stretched to formerly unthink- the second line.
able limits with high-profile cases. This most Given the “subject matter interest” of the Boock-
recent outage highlights more than ever how var case, the Middle District had already extended
courts are still adjusting to a remote environ- telephone access from its typical 200-caller capacity,
ment and learning how to estimate participation Welsh noted.
and work with the solutions needed in a digital While such issues are inconvenient, Welsh said
setting. he hopes such disturbances don’t continue. “We
Oral arguments for Boockvar were set to start at continue to work in an unprecedented time and
1:30 p.m. ET, according to a court press release. But work with unprecedented tools. It’s obviously our
roughly an hour into the proceeding some reported hope that we don’t continue to have these issues,”
that audio for the hearing abruptly cut off. The court he said.
issued an additional phone number and access code Indeed, while the court’s technical issues occurred
by approximately 4 p.m. ET, according to social me- during a high-profile legal battle, courts and IT pro-
dia comments. viders said it highlighted a natural learning curve
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of all courts are experiencing as they adjust to greater
Pennsylvania Clerk of Court Peter Welsh told Le- digital reliance and access.
galtech News that “the call was dropped by AT&T “I think that they’re getting prepared and there’s

CONNECTICUT
Law Tribune