What You Need to Know | Maryland Zoom Court Hearing Etiquette Tips

Thank you for joining me my name is LaSheena Williams and I am a Maryland family law attorney. My firm helps our clients take control of out-of-control domestic situations. Today we will be covering Maryland zoom court hearing etiquette tips.

Maryland Zoom Court Hearing Etiquette Tip No. 1: Log In Early

If you have a zoom hearing scheduled it’s best to log in early. If you have an attorney, your attorney will give you the zoom information. If you don’t have an attorney the court will email you the zoom information or if it’s a final protective order hearing you should have the zoom information in your paperwork.

Maryland Zoom Court Hearing Etiquette Tip No. 2: Lighting Matters

It’s important to consider your lighting. If for some reason you have sunlight or a light source behind you, the camera will pick up that you’re very dark and people won’t be able to see you. You ideally want a light source in front of you or above you and in front of you so that everyone can see you clearly and they can see your expressions and pay attention to you appropriately.

Maryland Zoom Court Hearing Etiquette Tip No. 3: Minimize Distractions

It’s important to realize that you are in fact in court so you don’t want to have a lot of distractions like your children around or someone who’s needing you or anything to distract you. You don’t want a tv on, you don’t want any noise source, because the court needs to hear you. The court is likely recording the session and you want to make sure your record is clear.

Maryland Zoom Court Hearing Etiquette Tip No. 4: Dress Professionally

You should dress professionally. Remember even though this might be taking place in your car or at your house you are still in court. You don’t want to wear headgear like hats or bonnets or scarves if you wouldn’t typically wear that to court. You want to present your best foot because the person that’s deciding your case they’re going to be judging you. They won’t sit there and see you. They won’t get a feel for you. They can only judge you based off of how you appear to them and you want to appear as professional and as competent as possible.

Maryland Zoom Court Hearing Etiquette Tip No. 5: What Not To Do During Zoom Hearings

There are a lot of things you should not do during your zoom hearing and some of these are going to sound like jokes but trust me based on my experiences the experiences I’m hearing from colleagues these are things that people are doing that people should not do. You shouldn’t be cooking, you shouldn’t be cleaning, you shouldn’t be laying in bed, you shouldn’t be disciplining your children, you shouldn’t be having side conversations with anyone that’s not presently at your hearing, you don’t want to do things that will make people judge you negatively unnecessarily. You want to minimize the opportunities for people to dislike you or prejudge you in a manner that you would not prefer.

Maryland Zoom Court Hearing Etiquette Tip No. 6: Keep Your Zoom Info Available

Ideally you want to keep your zoom information on hand. Sometimes the court has difficulties with the hearings and you might get kicked out. You don’t want to have to scramble for your zoom information. You want to be able to easily pull it up on your phone or a notepad where you wrote the information down previously so that you can log on as soon as possible.

Maryland Zoom Court Hearing Etiquette Tip No. 7: Heave a Method To Speak With Your Attorney

Typically if you were having a hearing in court and you had an attorney with you your attorney would let you know how to communicate with them. You would either go into a side room or you would write notes on a notepad to make you know conversation while you’re in a very quiet courtroom. Because you may be in a completely different location than your attorney it’s important to have a method set up where you can actually communicate with your attorney in real time or at least as close to real time as possible. You might have a messaging system or you might even text your attorney or your attorney could tell you in advance that if they specifically request to speak with you make sure you cut your video off your sound off and they’ll call you on a certain number so that you can have a dialogue and move on with your case as smoothly as possible in light of the fact that your hearing is happening virtually.

If You Have a Maryland Zoom Hearing in Montgomery County, Maryland or Prince George’s County, Maryland Today

If you have any questions about virtual hearings or zoom hearings or any other domestic related matters. Please feel free to subscribe to my Youtube channel please also feel free to give us a call at (301) 778-9950 to speak with an attorney today.