A Colombian court this month hosted its first legal trial within the metaverse, and now hopes to experiment again with virtual reality, authorities told Reuters.
On the two-hour hearing held by Colombia’s Magdalena Administrative court, participants in a traffic dispute appeared as avatars in a virtual courtroom. Magistrate Maria Quinones Triana’s avatar wearing black legal robes.
The country is among the many earliest worldwide to check real legal hearings within the metaverse, immersive virtual reality to make digital spaces feel more lifelike, often with avatars representing each participant.
“It felt more real than a video call,” Quiones told Reuters on Friday, describing the metaverse experience as “amazing.” On Zoom, she noted, “Many individuals turn off their cameras, you could have no idea what they’re doing,”
The case — brought by a regional transport union against the police – will now proceed partly within the metaverse, potentially including the decision, Quiones said. She didn’t rule out metaverse hearings elsewhere.
“That is a tutorial experiment to point out that there it’s possible… but where everyone consents to it, (my court) can proceed to do things within the metaverse,” she added.
While legal trials have increasingly moved to video meetings hosted by Zoom and Google, few have experimented with the metaverse, an area that Meta (META.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O) and other tech giants are racing to construct.
Early examples of interviews and meetings within the metaverse have been mocked for often-clunky, cartoonish visualizations.
Nonetheless, Colombia’s court proceedings on Feb 15 — streamed to Youtube — went off without an excessive amount of of a glitch, bar some dizzying camera movement and a few distorted movements.
Quiones reiterated the constitutional legitimacy of the virtual tribunal but acknowledged that the experiment had not been popular, citing 70% disapproval amongst viewers.
Juan David Gutierrez, a public policy professor at Colombia’s University of Rosario, said use of the metaverse in legal proceedings has a protracted solution to go.
“You would like a hardware to do that that only a few people have. And that prompts questions on accessibility to justice and equality,” he told Reuters.
Quiones agreed that costs and accessibility needed to be discussed. But she advocated for the metaverse in cases of abuse for instance, where participants can share an area without having to physically see one another.
Gutierrez said judges in Colombia were chasing ways to alleviate the country’s overloaded justice system.
“We create this illusion that technology goes to make things more efficient, but sometimes, it’s the other.”
