Speaker 1: How do you do a Zoom court hearing in Washington state? My name is Lance Fryrear and I'm the owner of the law office of Lance Fryrear. We're a five attorney criminal firm located in Lyndon, Washington that have been helping people charged with crimes for over 20 years. And I get that question, how do I do a Zoom or a video court hearing from our clients all the time? And so for our clients, I filmed a video to try to help explain, and I've thought I'd make a video for YouTube as well for just anyone out there who has questions. So here is our best practices. Number one, what we want you to do is ahead of time, make sure you have the link to sign in for the Zoom court hearing. What is a Zoom court hearing? Well, due to COVID-19, most courts are allowing people to appear on video. And Seattle Municipal is in person, Everett Municipal Court is in person, but for the most part, you have the option to appear on video and that's pretty convenient. But again, this is new. Most of us haven't done this before. So for a Zoom court hearing, I want to make sure you have the link ahead of time. And also make sure you know how to get ahold of your attorney, be it a public defender or a private attorney like us, because sometimes the link isn't correct. How do you get the link? You can look in the court website. It oftentimes is sent in the notice to you from the court or your attorney, or you can call the court and make sure you have it right. So have the link ahead of time. Number two, you should practice not with that link, but with someone else. Let's say that like most of us, you haven't used a lot of Zoom or video things, or if you're working, you know, the type of guy or the type of woman that just doesn't really like to do a lot of technology. Well, you should practice, right? For our clients, we'll offer someone a chance to practice on another type of video hearing. How do you turn your camera on and off? How do you mute and unmute? Do I have a good enough signal to do the court? Because it's scary. It's scary going to a court hearing when if you don't show up to the court hearing on video, you get a warrant. So it pays to practice. And it's not that hard, but if you practice, you'll feel better. And you're going to want to make sure you have a device that works, make sure you have an app that you've already, you know, worked out and tried to install on your phone or your computer if you're accessing it that way. So practice ahead of time. And then what to expect at the hearing. Well, there's several things that make us, you and us as attorneys and clients, a little bit nervous because each court does things different. You might log in, you'll click the button to sign into the Zoom hearing, and then you'll just get a message maybe that says, hey, we're waiting for the host to start the meeting. Well, am I in the right place? I don't know. So you don't know, right? So wait five minutes, you know, and if it's more than five minutes and it should have started and it hasn't, then you might want to think about reaching out to your attorney or the court. Sometimes you'll get a screen where the meeting has started, but you'll be in the waiting room. It'll say the host or the clerk will let you in. If you see that screen, you're usually okay. Some courts are letting everybody in all at once and some courts are just case by case letting people in. And so you see that screen, pay attention. If it's more than like 10 minutes or so, you might want to think about reaching out to your attorney or the court. That one's less scary than the meeting hasn't started yet. Because sometimes there's a meeting hasn't started yet screen, maybe you don't have the right link. So let's say everything goes fine. You get logged in and you can see a bunch of people. Typically, you're going to see a whole bunch of squares with different people in the squares. And those might be attorneys or other clients, or even the judge you'll see on your screen. And so what we tell our clients to do is we would like our clients, until your case is called, to keep the camera turned off and keep your audio muted. We want you to be able to hear what's going on in the Zoom courtroom, but we don't want the courtroom to be able to hear you. And the reason why we suggest you have the camera turned off, it makes you less nervous. There's also less judgment. Sometimes the prosecutor, someone might be watching what you do and you might be at your home dealing with your kids or something else. We don't want any negative judgments made about you. And then when you do turn your camera on, it's really important that you realize you are in court. We've had some problems where even our own clients, I had a client that was smoking online and that did not make the prosecutor very happy. And that was my fault for not explaining that ahead of time. That's why I figured I better make a video. We've had people that were sort of really tired and passing out on the video. That is not good. I've seen other people on video wearing hats or drinking. That is going to really upset the court. So pretend you're in the courtroom for real because you are in the courtroom virtually. So dress respectively. If you're at work, you can run to your car if necessary to do the hearing, but don't be driving. I actually have seen a client driving during the hearing and that was like a nightmare. So get someplace that's quiet. Get a place that you can concentrate and listen up to the hearing. Once your case is called, we tell people turn on your camera, turn on your sound so you can be heard, and then it's just like you're in court. Another tip, there is a chat box in many of these Zoom hearings where you could choose somebody to chat to, like you might choose your attorney to send them a message. We recommend you don't do that because you can easily make a mistake and end up chatting to everybody and reveal something that's confidential. For our clients, we want them to text us directly and privately through our telephone, through our cell phone, something like that. So those are some tips about how to do a Zoom court hearing. Make sure you have the link correct. Seems simple, but we've messed it up ourselves. Two, practice ahead of time because it's a new technology. And then three, when you're in court, act like you're in court and usually keep your camera and sound off until it's time. So again, my name is Lance Friar. I'm the owner of the Law Offices of Lance Friar. If you have a criminal case or have some questions or need some help, we're always here for you. Just give us a call. We'll do everything we can to help and we'll be there for you. Thank you.