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The Judicial Conference of the United States has approved changes to its broadcast policy that expands access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings over its longstanding pre-COVID policy.
The pre-COVID policy prohibited all remote public access to federal court proceedings. But the revised policy, approved Tuesday, will allow judges presiding over civil and bankruptcy cases to provide the public live audio access to non-trial proceedings that do not involve witness testimony.
The new policy will take effect Sept. 22, immediately after the expiration of the temporary exception that was put into place by the judiciary when access to courthouses was restricted due to COVID-19.
The change does not extend to criminal proceedings, which did have temporary permission to conduct some proceedings by videoconference or teleconference under the 2020 CARES Act. That permission ended in May.
The Judicial Conference adopted the revised policy on the recommendation of its Committee on Court Administration and Case Management, with the endorsement of the Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System and the Committee on the Administration of the Magistrate Judges System.
The CACM Committee is exploring possible ways to further expand remote public access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings and is examining concerns about the potential impact on proceedings involving witness testimony.
Specific issues the committee is studying include whether remote public access to proceedings involving witness testimony could increase the potential for witness intimidation or complicate witness sequestration, and whether the potential for live remote streaming of witness testimony may impact the truth-finding mission of the courts.
The conference also approved comprehensive style amendments to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. The amendments do not change the substance of the bankruptcy rules.
However, the restyled rules use language that is more consistent and easier to understand, based on several years of work by the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure and the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules, as well as input from the public.
According to a news release, this is the fifth and final set of rules to be comprehensively amended to update the style, culminating a project that began almost 30 years ago.
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