Texas courts held over 10,000 remote hearings in past 2 weeks, OCA estimates

Texas courts held more than 10,000 hearings over the past two weeks through Zoom licenses issued by the Office of Court Administration, the OCA reported Thursday. Judges spent a combined 22,700 hours in hearings with nearly 51,000 participants over that period, according to the OCA.

This week, the OCA released a video highlighting Texas courts’ transition to virtual hearings. The Texas Supreme Court heard three cases via Zoom on Wednesday and streamed them live on YouTube, becoming the first nine-member state supreme court to hold virtual oral arguments, according to the OCA. The OCA’s YouTube Court Channel Directory now displays when a court’s YouTube channel is live.

In its updated guidance to Texas courts on Thursday, the OCA also detailed its efforts to address privacy and security concerns related to the use of Zoom for court proceedings.

“Most of the privacy and security concerns that have been raised [in media reports and government advisories] are issues on accounts without security and privacy settings,” the OCA reported. “OCA takes these concerns seriously and has reviewed the security settings of all OCA-issued Zoom accounts to ensure that the appropriate settings are in place to protect proceedings occurring in those accounts.”