Back in 1994, Mark Wapnick, a Los Angeles-based real-estate and business attorney, found himself stuck in traffic during a 40-mile, one-way trip back from a one-minute court appearance. Wapnick watched the rest of his day evaporate into a traffic-snarled nightmare and thought there must be a way to eliminate the waste of hours and money associated with nonevidentiary, pretrial proceedings. Wapnick talked things over with his law and business partner, Robert Alvarado, and they found a way.
"Most of those appearances last a few minutes at most, yet, even on a good day, we spent a couple hours getting to the court, waiting for the judge and getting back," said Alvarado. "There is only so much productive work you can get done while waiting in a courtroom, and absolutely nothing you can do while driving, so we discussed ideas that would eliminate a lot of these trips."
Their answer was CourtCall, a teleconferencing system that opened up on their own home court, Los Angeles' downtown courtroom, in August 1996. They are now servicing over 100 courtrooms in 13 states as well as the Maritime Court of the U.S. Coast Guard.
JUST LIKE IN REAL LIFE
Attempts at setting up teleconferencing were made for court appearances before, but they were awkward, inefficient and required prior approval by the judge and careful coordination with the other attorneys. From the beginning Wapnick knew that, to be embraced by justice professionals, CourtCall must be a no-hassle system.
"I knew this was a zero-tolerance situation, and that the courts would throw us out in a minute if the quality wasn't perfect, but I also knew that the technology was now available to make court teleconference appearances work," said Alvarado. "We looked around a ton but found the choice to use AT&T was an easy one: They had a good system in place, they had been in the business a long time and they were willing to work with the courts to set up a system that worked for everyone."
AT&T TeleConference Services helped the two attorneys create a program with high-quality, full-duplex speakerphones for each courtroom and special training for the teleconference specialists working with CourtCall. The system is based on AT&T's standard business teleconference services and includes operator-dialed calls for in-chambers appearances. For in-court appearances, attorneys for the prosecution and the defense are given the court's special 800 number and an access code. Participants can dial in at any time, even if their running a few minutes late, and step directly into the meeting as though they've just opened the courtroom door.
These meetings, like the open courtroom itself, are not private, so there is no need for an operator to handle new arrivals. Attorneys signed up on the system use the special access code and just dial in. A tone is heard over a speaker in the court, which lets the clerk know that someone just arrived. The attorney can then sit at his own office desk, often working, while he waits for his case to be called.
In the instances where the judge wishes to meet with attorneys in his chambers, the CourtCall system provides the privacy required. Attorneys know to wait by their phone at a given time, and they are called by an AT&T operator and connected to the in-chambers teleconference when the judge requests it, not before. The system can also establish a subconference for attorneys wishing to confer outside of the judge's chambers before making crucial legal decisions, which is really no different than stepping into the hallway for a quick, private consultation.
As cities go, Sacramento does not face the traffic problems of California neighbors San Francisco or Los Angeles, where CourtCall fills a more pressing need.
But the system installed Jan. 2 in Sacramento is receiving rave reviews, according to Judge Tom Cecil, presiding judge of the region's Superior and Municipal courts.
"We have a commitment to increase access to the courts while reducing the costs of litigation. Obviously, providing the opportunity for an attorney to appear telephonically from Los Angeles or San Francisco for the sum of $40 is being warmly embraced," said Cecil.
"The telephone appearance has a place but we are finding that 90 percent of the attorneys still choose to appear in person: they like to get their face in front of the judge," added Mike Roddy, the courts' executive officer. "For out-of-town counsel though, it is a major cost savings."
The estimated $10,000 in revenue the courts will receive annually is being earmarked for furthering the courts' technology-driven needs.
In addition to the special 800 number and the teleconferencing features, a teleconference specialist -- who is given specific training in court procedures and requirements -- is available for the court at all times.
"Our teleconference operators that work on the CourtCall system act, essentially, like the judge's own court clerk, ushering attorneys to and from the judge's chambers and announcing new arrivals," said Cathy Winter, senior teleconference manager with AT&T.
"Our goal was to replicate the court environment as close to realistically as possible," added Alvarado.
COURT-TO-COURT CUSTOMIZATION
The attorneys looked at a variety of options before selecting AT&T, but when they did, the corporation enthusiastically jumped on the CourtCall bandwagon. The company's teleconference branch was already handling over 10,000 business conference calls a day, but it immediately recognized the special needs of a courtroom's rigid environment, which is governed heavily by a traditional protocol.
"We put a whole team of AT&T specialists on this for eight to nine months before a call was ever made in the courtroom. We actually went to the court in Los Angeles dozens and dozens of times to see firsthand how the system worked and made sure we understood the intricacies facing the system. It got to where I would walk in and the judge would announce, 'We will be having Ms. AT&T here in our courtroom today,'" Winter explained.
FROM TRAFFIC JAMS TO CASH
Attorneys using CourtCall in California pay $40 per appearance, while attorneys in other areas of the country pay $45 per appearance. Best of all, the cost for all this technology for cash-strapped courts is a big zero. In fact, CourtCall actually pays the courts.
"We provide the courts with a Polycom SoundStation EX full-duplex speakerphone, and they supply a phone jack and a 110v outlet. That's it," said Alvarado. "Then we pay them up to $11.25 per CourtCall use. It has generated a lot of extra cash for the courts using the system, while saving attorneys a lot of time and their clients a lot of money. One courtroom, the Fresno Superior Court in California, is using the money to fund a waiting room for children, while others are rebuilding the stock in their law libraries."
Since its creation, CourtCall has handled nearly 8,000 appearances, which generated over $70,000 for participating courts. For the attorneys, Alvarado figures, each appearance saves about two hours of travel time, resulting in a savings for their clients of about $1.4 million.
This is an absolute win-win situation," he said.
Ray Dussault is a Sacramento, Calif.-based writer.
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