By Jeffrey A. Roberts
CFOIC Executive Director

Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Monica Márquez highlighted “coordinated attacks” on Colorado’s virtual courtrooms during her State of the Judiciary remarks Friday, stressing the need to upgrade the system that has expanded public access to judicial proceedings.

The use of Webex to broadcast court proceedings became widespread in Colorado after the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020. House Bill 23-1182 and Chief Justice Directive 23-02 made the livestreaming of criminal court proceedings around the state commonplace.

The public-facing virtual court site only lets people watch and listen to proceedings, not participate in them. But Márquez told legislators there are “individuals who sneak into virtual courtrooms, sometimes posing as actual parties and witnesses, and they hijack the proceedings by screaming racial epithets at litigants and judges and streaming pornographic, racist or violent video.”

“I’ve heard directly from several judges around the state about the mental and emotional impact that these nearly daily attacks have had on them and their court staff,” she added.

Webex “was never designed to function as a digital courtroom. Our need for a true digital courtroom solution is a fundamental question of public safety,” the chief justice said, thanking the Joint Budget Committee for authorizing emergency funding to issue an RFP for an upgrade project.

The Denver Gazette reported in August that the hacks had started a month earlier in several judicial districts.

“In many instances, hackers are changing their VPN location and using the names of defendants and victims to confuse court clerks, who then unknowingly let the hacker into the proceeding,” the newspaper story says.

According to JBC documents, a new platform would let the Judicial Department “identify and block disruptive individuals based on IP address or other unique identifiers. It could detect suspicious behavior such as attempts to enter multiple courtrooms in quick succession.”

The department now relies on three different software programs for virtual proceedings, court recording and livestreaming. The new system would “unify multiple functions currently spread across different products,” the JBC documents say, and possibly offer capabilities such as the use of artificial intelligence to “help identify speakers even when they are speaking over each other.”

In its FY 2025-26 budget submission, the department asked to spend a total of $3.7 million from the Judicial Department Information Technology Cash Fund.

Follow the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition on X (formerly Twitter) @CoFOIC. Like CFOIC’s Facebook page. Do you appreciate the information and resources provided by CFOIC? Please consider making a tax-deductible donation.