Court recordings to begin soon

By Kathy Lynn Gray

Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

Court proceedings will be video recorded for the first time this summer in U.S. District Court here as part of a three-year nationwide experiment.

But when the recordings will start remains unclear as local federal judges work out technical details and try to find plaintiffs and defendants willing to participate.

Historically, cameras have been banned in nearly all federal courtrooms despite numerous congressional attempts to allow them.

A national judicial committee asked judges last fall to try cameras on a limited basis so their use could be evaluated. Three volunteered from the Southern District of Ohio, which includes federal courts in Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton.

One is Judge Gregory L. Frost, who is also on the committee sponsoring the study.

“I don’t have a dog in the fight,” said Judge Frost, who has been on the federal bench for eight years. “I don’t care one way or the other if we use cameras.”

Judges Edmund A. Sargus Jr. and Michael H. Watson, both from Columbus, also volunteered.

Only civil-case proceedings will be recorded, and only if both parties agree. The cameras will be stationary in courtrooms and will record judges, witnesses and attorneys.

Jurors will not be recorded, and witnesses can opt out, Judge Frost said.

The recordings will be posted on the court’s website, probably within a day. Judges will be able to make minor edits, such as deleting the address of a witness or other personal information, he said.

Thirteen other district courts have agreed to participate in the study, which begins this week.

Judge Frost said cameras have been prohibited in federal courts because of a fear that attorneys and witnesses would play to the cameras and participants would suffer from a loss of privacy.

Cameras, however, have been allowed in most state courts for years. The Ohio Supreme Court and some federal appeals courts also have cameras.

Judge Frost said he didn’t object to cameras in the courtroom when he was a Licking County Municipal and Common Pleas judge.

Local lawyer Mark Landes said Monday he is looking forward to having cameras in federal courtrooms. He has tried more than 300 cases in the Southern District of Ohio and twice been president of the Columbus chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

“I think more information is better, and I think people expect it,” he said.