{"id":330556,"date":"2026-08-26T22:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T22:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330556\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T22:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T22:14:08","slug":"new-york-state-court-system-weighs-pros-and-cons-as-it-plans-to-expand-virtual-platform-to-500-courtrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330556\/","title":{"rendered":"New York State court system weighs pros and cons as it plans to expand virtual platform to 500 courtrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York State Unified Court System report<\/a> on its modernization efforts indicated that it plans to expand its virtual appearance platform to 500 courtrooms across the state by the end of 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Launched as a pilot in March 2025, New York\u2019s Virtual Court Appearance Platform (NY-VCAP) has handled over 850 appearances in its pilot phase in Surrogate\u2019s Court, Court of Claims, and Supreme-Civil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The report, authored by the Court Modernization Action Committee (CMAC), detailed the court system\u2019s plan to develop its own virtual platform, which will allow a variety of court types to closely \u201cmimic\u201d the functions of a physical courtroom where lawyers and judges can virtually enter private \u201challways\u201d for settlements or to hold attorney-client conferences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the committee\u2019s bid to expand usage of the new tech, it also identified concerns and aspects of the virtual that need improvement. Judges and attorneys need uniform guidance about when they should rely on virtual hearings. Criminal and problem-solving courts can potentially suffer without the in-person human touch, users reported.<\/p>\n

In its description of the new technology, CMAC also touted the \u201crevolutionary\u201d virtual platform\u2019s screen design that identifies all parties by name and role. Since the pandemic, some court functions have been funneled onto Microsoft Teams, but judges have reported<\/a> some glitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe progress documented in this report demonstrates how innovation\u00a0\u2014\u00a0guided by feedback, research, and real-world experience\u00a0\u2014\u00a0can strengthen the courts while making them more responsive to the needs of the public,\u201d New York Chief Administrative Judge Zayas wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hon.Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas speaks at the Brooklyn Women\u2019s Bar Association Gala.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

As it stands now, 27 judges are actively hearing appearances via NY-VCAP, according to the report. In the next phase, 13 judges in family and criminal courts will begin participating in the pilot soon. So far, of the 850 appearances on the platform have been primarily conferences, but the report noted that every judicial district is represented in the pilot, including a mix of urban, suburban, and rural areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once family and criminal courts begin to participate, CMAC says it will evaluate feedback and determine long-term plans for the platform.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s goal of expanding its use of the virtual platform generally conforms to the feedback that the modernization committee heard in a series of virtual listening sessions it held over the past year, according to the report.<\/p>\n

During conversations on housing court in particular, court users including attorneys, administrators and clerks reported that the use of the virtual appearances varied sharply by geographic court district, and generally appreciated its efficiency in the areas where it had been implemented.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In family court, users complained that there was not enough guidance about when to use virtual proceedings. They are being used mainly for first appearances and status conferences, with hearings and trials generally conducted in-person, but attorneys wanted more clarity about what proceedings are actually required to be in-person.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was only in the supreme and problem-solving courts that the virtual program \u201craised concerns about fairness, uneven adoption, and the increased risk of prejudicial outcomes resulting from a loss of human connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDefense attorneys emphasized the risk of losing critical human elements\u2014such as in-person advocacy, trust-building with clients, and judges observing defendants\u2019 demeanor\u2014when relying too heavily on virtual appearances. Issues like inappropriate waivers of appearance, missing nonverbal cues, or clients feeling pressured into pleas were highlighted,\u201d the report\u2019s authors wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In further expanding VCAP, the court would have to put up safeguards in criminal proceedings to reduce these issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York State Unified Court System report on its modernization efforts indicated that it plans to expand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[44521,124463,124464,102151,124465,59919,41813,39982,124466,9,24,55,54,1181,56,124467,124468,124274,124469,124470],"class_list":["post-330556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-access-to-justice","tag-chief-administrative-judge-joseph-zayas","tag-court-modernization","tag-court-reform","tag-court-technology","tag-criminal-courts","tag-family-courts","tag-housing-court","tag-judicial-innovation","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-courts","tag-ny","tag-ny-vcap","tag-remote-proceedings","tag-unified-court-system","tag-virtual-court-appearances","tag-virtual-hearings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}