The courtroom of tomorrow is here now at the National Judicial College on the University of Nevada, Reno campus. Jurors, the judge and lawyers have slender television screens in front of them for ease of viewing exhibits including documents. Witnesses can draw with a finger on their screens and everyone else in the courtroom can see what they re doing marking a spot on a map, perhaps.
Wheelchair ramps serve the jury box, the bench, the witness box and the audience.
Washoe District Court judges are looking at the model courtroom at the judicial college for guidance as they plan courtrooms for the proposed justice center in downtown Reno. District judges have said they may hold trials at the judicial college and Procter Hug, chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said panels of his court may use the facility. Also on Wednesday, the college which trains judges from throughout the nation will dedicate its new National Center for the Courts and Media a place where judges and journalists can discuss common problems such as extensive publicity in high-profile cases that could make it difficult to seat juries. This is a wonderful example of the government and the private sector working together, said Ernest Borunda, a former trial court judge from San Diego who three months ago became dean of the college. The two-story brick building also includes new offices and classrooms equipped with electronic devices such as jumbo electronic plasma screens and a computer laboratory to be used for training judges, he said.