Recent there have been multiple instances of people taking pictures (and uploading them to social networks) inside the courtroom. In one case, court officials received emails containing pictures of the jurors during deliberation. After a woman was caught taking pictures in the courtroom, she claimed that she is eager to learn the inner workings of the legal process. To accommodate such people without disrupting the trials or endangering the judges, witnesses and jurors, the justice department is considering setting up a mock court where visitors can freely take pictures, film and sharing them on social networks.
To prevent affecting the fairness of ongoing cases, the court cases to be reenacted in the mock court would be based on cases where the final judgement has been handed down. Visitors can act as members of the audience, juror, bailiff, witness, lawyers on the prosecution/defense and their support team or the judge. Before the beginning of the session, visitors will be asked to select one preferred role. If a role is overbooked (for example, multiple visitors applying to be the judge), the role would be selected randomly, with those not selected assigned roles by random. Visitor without a role preference will join the mock court session as members of the audience. The admission price to be paid by each participant will be based on the role played by the visitor — the bigger the role, the pricier the admission (For example, it costs more to be a judge than any other roles.)
Before the beginning of the mock court session, participants will be asked to watch a video summary of the case they will be re-enacting to familiarize themselves with the nature of the case, the evidence being presented and the tactics used by both sides. The evidence presented in the mock trial are replicas of those presented in the actual trial.
The length of a session is based on the complexity of the case, but it would typically be a day long. If visitors are selected to be jurors, they would be sequestered during the deliberation process, just like the actual trials. Unlike real trials, a verdict has to be reached within the day.
While visitors can freely capture pictures and film, the mock court session will also be recorded by the organizers. The admission fee includes a DVD featuring the highlights of the "official" recordings.
In order to deter the public from recording actual court proceedings, the justice department has proposed increasing the penalty for recording pictures, filming, texting and assessing social network within the courthouse — offenders will be heavily fined and may be sentenced to jail. Devices would be installed within the courthouse to jam mobile signals. Network connection would be still be available to the lawyers working on the case, but they have to use their laptops to assess the network.