Appellate Law

The Webcasting Trend

By D. Todd Smith

Between vacations and a very full workload, I haven’t been blogging all that much over the summer. Nevertheless, I got a call last week from a reporter at law360.com who saw my posts on webcasting court proceedings and wanted to interview me for an article she was writing.  The article, quoting yours truly, appears here.

The article discusses live webcasting as a trend among state supreme courts, naming "Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, West Virginia, New Jersey, North Dakota, Maryland and Florida are among the states that webcast oral arguments, sometimes teaming up with a local law school to do it."  Federal courts—um, not so much.

While I like to think of the Texas Supreme Court (with help from St. Mary's Law School) as a pioneer in this area, it apparently doesn't get the "I was here first" award.  According to the law360.com article, the Florida Supreme Court "has been webcasting its oral arguments, and even broadcasting them on cable TV, since 1997."

Full post as published by Texas Appellate Law Blog on August 07, 2008 (boomark / email).