Controlled Scientific Research
Controlled scientific studies are complex and costly in terms of personnel resources. The Center for Legal and Court Technology has conducted four such studies. Working with Professor Kelly Shaver of the William & Mary Psychology Department, the Center supported two controlled studies of the impact of using remote expert witness testimony as compared to having the witnesses testify in person in the courtroom (proving the utility of remote testimony). In 2002, CLCT (then Courtroom 21) completed a year and a half empirical and legal research effort funded by the State Justice Institute. In addition to collecting empirical data from federal and state courts and conducting legal research, this controlled study tested the use of various technologies for jury deliberations. With the assistance of the Chair of the William & Mary Psychology Department, Professor Constance Pilkington, we also conducted a controlled study of different ways to present evidence of wiretapped foreign language conversations in the context of an international drug smuggling case.
Informal Research
Both CLCT and the Law School use the McGlothlin Courtroom extensively. The Legal Skills Program, supported by the Center, tries approximately 50 bench trials and 40 appeals each year. All trials are held in the McGlothlin Courtroom. The Law School’s trial advocacy courses try in excess of 20 jury trials each year. These trials, plus practice for them, and the numerous Courtroom 21 demonstrations and programs conducted in and around the courtroom give us a vast amount of ad hoc experience in the ways in which lawyers use and experience technology. Understanding the impact of technology on the trial participants is very valuable.
Legal Research & Writing
Although CLCT is especially well known for its empirical research, staff members conduct legal research and publish in appropriate journals, often with the assistance of student research assistants. Although the Center endorses publication in traditional academic law reviews, it has often emphasized publication in professional magazines and papers likely to have wide distribution in the profession. In addition to this, CLCT has as part of its Court Affiliate Program published a variety of white papers dealing with legal and technological topics. Professor Lederer’s work is especially known in this area. Some of his technology publications have included:
The Courtroom in the Age of Technology, published in Celebrating the Courthouse (2005-2006).
Excerpts from Basic Advocacy and Litigation in a Technological World(Desktop published 2005 and the basic trial practice text for William & Mary Law School’s Legal Skills Program)
Fredric Lederer, Technology-Augmented Courtrooms - Progress Amid a Few Complications, or the Problematic Interrelationship Between Court and Counsel, 60 N.Y.U. Ann. Survey of Am. L. 675 (2005).
Fredric Lederer, The Potential Use of Courtroom Technology in Major Terrorism Cases, 12 WM & Mary Bill Rts. J. 887 (2004).
Fredric Lederer, Courtroom Technology - Courtroom Technology: For Trial Lawyers the Future Is Now, ABA Criminal Justice, Spring, 2004 at 14.
Fredric Lederer, The Courtroom 21 Project: Creating the Courtroom of the Twenty-First Century, 43 ABA Judges J. Winter, 2004, at 39.
Fredric Lederer, The Effect of Courtroom Technologies on and in Appellate Proceedings and Courtrooms, 2 J. App. Practice and Process 251 (2000), reprinted at 50 Defense L.J. 773 (2001).
Fredric Lederer, Courtroom Technology, A Judicial Primer, ABA Judges’ J., Winter, 2000, at 13.
Fredric Lederer, Courtroom Technology in the 21 st Century, Trial, July, 1999.
Fredric Lederer, The New Courtroom: the Intersection of Evidence and Technology: Some Thoughts On the Evidentiary Aspects of Technologically Produced or Presented Evidence, 28 S.W. U.L. Rev. 389 (1999)
Fredric Lederer, The Road To the Virtual Courtroom? A Consideration of Today’s – and Tomorrow’s – High Technology Courtrooms? (1999 State Justice Institute), 50 S.C. L. Rev. 799 (1999).
Fredric Lederer, The Courtroom As a Stop On the Information Superhighway, Australian J. L. Reform (1998).