Manitowoc court improves listening skills

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Circuit Judge Jerome Fox’s booming voice can overcome most, but not all, sound-related difficulties in his courtroom at the Manitowoc County Courthouse.

Since joining the bench in 2005, he said, the audio system in his Branch 3 courtroom has deteriorated, making it difficult to conduct telephone hearings through a central speakerphone.

“Sometimes, I’m stopping and saying, ‘Can you get closer to your phone or talk louder?’” Fox said. “We don’t have a very good system here, but we make do.”

Fox said he would welcome similar audio/visual upgrades as those bestowed upon the court’s largest courtroom, Branch 1, in recent years.

Three years ago, the county approved $5,000 for installation of a “hearing loop” audio upgrade to the Branch 1 courtroom at the 112-year-old courthouse. The system provides wireless transmission through the courtroom’s speakers directly to hearing aids equipped with a “T” coil.

The technology has improved communication in the large courtroom, said Judge Patrick Willis, and safeguards against the potential that hearing-impaired jurors miss a crucial piece of testimony.

“Obviously, you don’t want a case reversed because a juror later reports they didn’t hear anything,” he said.

“Primarily, it’s just accommodating jurors.”

During Willis’ early days on the bench, he said, trained sign language professionals were brought in to translate testimony to hard-of-hearing or deaf jurors.

“Because of the fatigue factor,” he said, “you’d have to have a team of two people doing the signing.”

The hearing loop system was part of about $100,000 in audio and visual updates installed primarily in the Branch 1 courtroom in the past decade. Other amenities now include flat-screen monitors for videoconferencing and wireless internet throughout the courthouse.

Though the updates can be helpful, Clerk of Courts Lynn Zigmunt said, there isn’t a strong enough reason to add it to the other two courtrooms, including Fox’s.

“With the expense involved,” she said, “if they are not utilizing it that much, why waste more money when you have all this stuff sitting there, but nobody is using it?”

Videoconferencing, particularly, has been slow to catch on in the county, Zigmunt said, in part because most attorneys and court officials prefer in-person appearances.

But when people have to use technology, there are basic limitations, said Manitowoc attorney Kevin Stangel, of Salutz & Salutz LLP. A lack of power outlets near attorney tables in the courtrooms makes videoconferencing, he said.

The inconvenience is a product, he said, of trying to balance the history of a 1907 building with the technological opportunities of 2012.

“From a historical perspective, we have a nice courthouse, aesthetically speaking,” Stangel said. “From a technology standpoint, we’re getting there and have a little ways to go.”

While amenities such as the hearing loop, videoconferencing and infrared hearing headsets are nice, he said, they are still largely underused.

“We don’t have a lot of people within our county that use that type of technology,” Stangel said.

Willis acknowledged technology has been slow to take off but said the local legal community is gradually embracing it.

The goal, Zigmunt said, is to eventually expand permanent videoconferencing equipment and the hearing loop system into the smaller courtrooms of Judge Gary Bendix in Branch 2 and Fox’s court. But the need will have to justify the expense, she said.

Better audio/video technology might alleviate confusion, Fox said, such as a recent mix-up during a round of criminal intake in his courtroom.

Fox had called the name of a defendant in his court several times through the microphone on his bench and, after hearing no response, decided to issue a bench warrant for the man’s arrest.

After several other cases, the man, who has hearing difficulties, came forward and asked Fox if his name had been called because he wanted to make sure he could still enter his plea of no contest to disorderly conduct.

With better options for the hearing impaired, Fox said, the problem could have been avoided, which is why he wants the upgrades.

“My courtroom is OK,” he said. “(By comparison), we’re just starting to hit the last few decades of the 20th century now.”