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According to an article on MassLive, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Massachusetts chief justices are still relying on virtual hearings whenever in-person appearances aren’t deemed necessary. That means that the majority of child custody and divorce hearings are currently held digitally.
While the digital hearing change was mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many justices foresaw the shift taking place.
“With the pandemic, we have made substantial progress in just a few months. Therefore, even when this pandemic is behind us, we do not believe we will or should go back to doing things as we did in February. We are, more quickly than many thought we could and with some stumbles along the way, creating a more modern and efficient court system that will survive after the pandemic has passed.” – letter signed by chief justices Ralph D. Gants, Mark V. Green, and Paula M. Carey (sourced from MassLive.com)