Ride the Lightning

Judge Herbert Dixon: A Futurist View of Technology and the Courts

August 6, 2013

Congratulations to my friend, D.C. Superior Court Judge Herbert Dixon, on his new article in the ABA Judges' Journal. The article represents a look into the future of technology and the courts – as you might imagine, it would have been a wholly different article if penned a decade ago.

Judge Dixon scans the near and far horizons of the future, anticipating increased usage of video appearances, virtual hearings and even trials. He sees clients (as we are starting to today) that demand attorneys who are technically competent, aware of cybersecurity and cognizant about replacing expensive travel with video conferences.

With geolocation data populating all of our devices, he sees discovery requests for that data escalating sharply. Google Glass and similar technologies may lead to people recording their entire day. This has proven to be some of the most valuable big data that we are creating.

Technology-assisted review will rule the day, e-filing will be the norm even in state courts and yet-to-be-imagined disruptive technologies will emerge and throw his predictions off the tracks. That is the nature of the beast – technology moves at warp speed with users (and the law) limping gamely behind in an impossible effort to keep up.

Be sure to note his predictions about technology-assisted deception detection – we'll have to come back and check that aspect of his crystal ball in a few years!