Does Zoom make the Courts more accessible?

A recent post on the Texas Family Lawyers Facebook page says so. The following was posted by a lawyer who does mostly CPS cases:

I handle exclusively CPS cases and we’ve seen increased participation in hearings from the parents. Often people couldn’t attend sometimes because they just couldn’t be bothered or because they needed to work or were scared of warrants. Now unless the parent is genuinely MIA they almost always log in for court. Participation in court ordered services has also improved now that providers are offering virtual Services (such as counseling).Parents who are involved are also now having increased contact with their children. Instead of only seeing them weekly many of them are having daily video calls. All of this has lead to increased reunification in our county and I hope we will continue to use these tools once the pandemic is over.

At the outset of the pandemic many judges, and especially some Child Protection Court judges, were reluctant about Zoom hearings. They were also dubious of Zoom mediation. Both of those categories of fears are now largely gone now that everyone — and I mean everyone — has had experience with it. Other than jury trials. There is a lot more work needed for that to work.