It's interesting that the Court is now regularly offering public access information for remote hearings. I can't recall it doing that before the coronavirus.
The only pre-coronavirus remote hearings I can think of were for scheduling and discovery dispute conferences, where public access is not usually a concern. Scheduling conferences often took place privately in chambers even when they were in-person, and discovery dispute conferences often involve confidential information anyway. It looks like they judges are still handling these how they always have.
These days, however, the Court regularly holds all kinds of other, more substantive hearings remotely, and most of the judges have been taking steps to allow the public to attend. Here is what the judges have been doing to allow public access to these kinds of hearings:
- Chief Judge Stark: Public Zoom links on the docket for remote trials, and public dial-in numbers for hearings
- Judges Andrews and Burke: Remote hearings are held by Skype for Business coordinated directly with the parties; dial-in information not available on dockets
- Judges Connolly and Fallon: Public dial-in information on dockets
- Judges Noreika and Hall: Notices on the dockets for the public to contact chambers for dial-in information
Because most of the judges are providing some form of public access, it's worth keeping in mind that, just like an in-person hearing, you'll need to ask the Court to seal the "courtroom" before discussing confidential information. Otherwise you risk waiver and will have problems with a later motion to redact the transcript (and those motions are hard enough already).
From what I've seen, so far, these have been sparsely attended by people not involved in the case (much like in-person hearings). But all it takes is one extra person...
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