Poll of judges finds Zoom to be most popular platform

Zoom and WebEx are far and away the platforms being used most often for remote court hearings during the COVID-19 crisis, a national survey of judges found.

Zoom received 48 percent of the vote and WebEx 25 percent.

The unscientific poll was taken earlier this month by The National Judicial College, the nation’s oldest, largest and most widely attended school for judges. The College emailed the survey question to its more than 12,000 judicial alumni nationally and received 702 responses.

Here’s how other platforms finished in the survey: Skype (9.69%), Microsoft Teams (9.12%), GoToMeeting (6.13%), Google Hangouts (3.85%), BlueJeans (3.56%), CourtCall (3.13%), Adobe Connect (0.14%), and other (10.54%).
Several judges reported that Zoom had streamlined operations and they plan to continue using the service even after social distancing requirements have been lifted.

Some of the featured mentioned positively:

• The “waiting room” feature that limits admission to meetings.
• Recordability, which can create copies of hearings for court files.
• Break-out rooms for confidential counsel.
• Greater access to the justice system overall.