Virtual court hearings saving taxpayers thousands of dollars. /
As courts continue to stay closed to protect the public , they've had to find different solutions to help alleviate caseload burdens.The South Georgia Judicial Circuit has been using the video conferencing app "Star Leaf" to conduct full hearings.The counties currently using the service are Mitchell, Decatur, and Grady counties.The District Attorney Joe Mulholland says when the pandemic hit, they had to start looking at different media solutions."It’s really, really been a lifesaver for the judicial system in our circuit for the last two months," Mulholland said. "We were able to procure the funds through our office and in all these other agencies to go ahead and purchase Star Leaf. We began putting it in and installing it into our circuit."Mulholland says so far about $20,000 approximately has been used for the service but they've been able to save twice that by meeting virtually.Those who don't have access to a computer can still use the service."The general public they can actually go to the court room, the jail court rooms, the secondary court rooms, and observe this on the cameras that we have installed. And the monitors that we have installed," Mulholland explained. "The witnesses if they don’t have access or don’t feel comfortable in any event, we do have computers in our office that they can use to testify from."Star Leaf is ISO encrypted which is why the District Attorney says the possibility of security breaches are not a concern.He hopes to add the service to Baker County soon.