Like so many other things in life after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in-person legal visits were deemed not safe when the pandemic first occurred. The California Board of Parole had no choice but to adjust its policies and procedures to allow for virtual hearings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Parole Attorney Legal Group rose to the pandemic challenges in the most professional manner and have worked tirelessly to find ways to prepare our clients for parole hearings and meet court deadlines.
Pre-COVID commissioners, inmates, defense counsel, district attorneys, and victims all attended parole hearings in person. This is not the case today. Inmates currently attend their hearings in person; however unless the inmate has problems with understanding the commissioners, district attorneys, and victims attend the hearing via video. Based on the arrangement made between defense counsel and their client, defense counsel attends the hearing either in person or via video. The Parole Attorney Legal Group prefer to attend the hearing in-person unless COVID restrictions, other health conditions or prison conditions require otherwise.
This new world of virtual hearings no doubt has its pros and cons. We personally believe that not having the commissioners sit in the same room with the inmate limits the commissioner from feeling the inmates true personality. On the other hand not having the district attorney and victim(s) physically at the hearing is a plus as they more times than not exert greater influence on the commissioner when in person and in the same room with the commissioner and thus we believe there is a greater chance of the commissioner being more objective when they would otherwise be when they are separated by a video screen particularly when the prosecutor or victim(s) are aggressive in opposing an inmate’s parole.
As defense counsel we believe that representing the inmate in person serves many purposes including but not limited to: putting our clients more at ease with the process, it generally calms our client(s) from feeling nervous when they are alone, to allowing the instantaneous interaction with the client to answer questions or provide guidance. Neverthless we have been successful with representing clients both in person and by virtual hearing and thus we are able to provide our clients a considerable discount off their normal fee by doing the hearing virtually for new clients. When a prison’s location requires significant travel such as Pelican Bay, the High Desert, and other remote prisons attorneys will charge a premium for the extra travel time and expense that it takes to and from the prison hearing.
The choice of having defense counsel appear in person or virtually at the hearing belongs to our clients, whether we represent our clients in person or virtually we represent our clients with the same vigor and skill no matter if we are in the room with our client or representing our client virtually our goal is the same to have “PAROLE GRANTED”.
