Login | June 18, 2026
Virtual Court can improve access to justice in Ohio courts
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: June 10, 2022
Henschen and Associates have developed a virtual courtroom that has functionalities well beyond the current Zoom and Zoom-like hearing platforms and that could truly expand access to justice for numerous defendants and their lawyers.
Virtual Court can create the entire courtroom process completely online, obviating the need for a defendant or defendant’s counsel to ever physically appear. For anything. “Virtual Court includes an entire e-court,” said Patrick Henschen, director of municipal operations for the Bowling Green, Ohio legal software company Henschen and Associates.
At the moment, Virtual Court is designed to only operate on Henschen’s Case Management System. However, Patrick Henschen said that the company is open to expanding Virtual Court to be able to connect to other CMS’s.
Henschen said that Virtual Court was a natural extension of the company’s 30-plus years’ effort to make every court completely paperless.
“Paperless means totally paperless,” said Henschen. “E-filing is online—no faxes and no emails.”
As of this date, the product is basically in beta testing in only one courtroom (Garfield Heights Municipal Court). Judge Deborah J. Nicastro indicated at the 2022 Ohio Judicial Conference that she was extremely pleased with how Virtual Court was operating in her courtroom.
Henschen, in fact, said that the seed idea for Virtual Court originated with Judge Nicastro about four years ago.
“We started working with developing this platform just before the pandemic started,” he said.
It was good timing. The company did not have to try to guess what continual virtual interaction with the court might be like. They worked through actual virtual court development.
“We had talked for several hours about why something like Virtual Court was wanted,” said Henschen. “But once the pandemic hit, the answer to that question became self-evident.”
Henschen and Associates has been in business since 1987. Known for case management systems used throughout Ohio by municipal courts, their products are also used by every facet of the justice system, as well as various private businesses.
On to the product.
Virtual Court takes every court function—in this case, municipal court—and gives defendants and their lawyers online interfaces so that they can complete any court-related task without physically appearing in that court.
The platform connects to the Court Management System (CMS) in real time—just like if the bailiff is running documents back to the clerk’s office.
The first set of functions is under the heading “E-Pleadings.”
This provides links to allow defendants to enter a plea, specify legal representation choice, upload proof of insurance, schedule hearing dates, sign documents, and select and pay payment plans for fines and costs. Defendants will also be able to waive speedy trial rights through an audio interface.
Sentencing can also be automated, although not on the spot. Anything like sentencing that requires a judge’s signature will eventually go to the judge to sign (or not).
Defendants will be able to change their pleas online by walking the defendant through a series of forms that create the necessary documents, and then provide a place for the defendant to sign the proper forms.
Again, these forms will go to the judge for approval (or rejection).
The platform also includes an integrated Zoom-based virtual courtroom. Here, parties and the court can conduct audio/video hearings and document sharing and document signing. The virtual courtroom is also connected to the CMS, and can use and manage forms directly from the CMS.
Connecting to the court’s CMS, parties and the court can set hearings and notify parties via email or text messaging. Parties will also be notified of completed virtual court hearings. They can have quick access to audio and video hearings. Their data and documents integrate seamlessly into the CMS.
The CMS itself that is being used in Garfield Heights has e-filing, e-payments and online docketing.
The company is in the process of developing interactive portals for attorneys, adding video conferencing, and other upgrades, said Henschen>
Add that all up, and a defendant’s entire case can be done virtually. Except going to jail.
Any court that wants a free demo of Virtual Courts can ask for one here: http://henschen.com/.
Digital Evidence Center
In keeping with the Judge Nicastro’s forward thinking on technology, the Garfield Heights Municipal Court is now the only court in Ohio that is connected to a Thomson Reuters Case Center.
The Case Center (https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/case-center) is a digital evidence center that operates as a Software as a Service (usually known as a “the cloud”), said Nicastro.
Nicastro had seen a demonstration of a digital evidence center at a court technology conference, she said, and she was immediately struck by how much it could help her court, particularly when it came to traffic stops, domestic violence cases, and other cases where police held evidence that was discoverable by the defense.
Nicastro said that, as electronic evidence like police body cams and other electronic evidence began to come on to the scene, a “big gap” developed between the initial requests for discovery by the defense after the first pretrial and the delivery of the evidence.
“Police had to take their evidence, upload it to a disc, and then mail the disc to the defense,” she said, which took too much time for her liking.
A digital evidence center like the one Nicastro wound up installing, takes most of that transfer time away. Law enforcement immediately uploads any electronic evidence subject to discovery, which is then immediately available to the appropriate parties. Instead of several weeks, the discovery process takes a few hours. Then everyone gets an email with a secure link to the evidence.
Instead of a month or two, said Nicastro,” we can schedule a pretrial in two weeks from arraignment.”
Nicastro was so impressed by how well it works that she is presenting it to a conference of the American Bar Association.