Welcome to the latest in our ‘Holding Court’ series where the Lit Daily is exploring the variety of ways the pandemic has changed how the nation’s trial courts conduct their business and the things individual jurists are doing to adjust to whatever the new normal is going to be.

Meet Circuit Judge Bruce Anderson who sits on the Fourth Judicial Circuit in Jacksonville, Florida. Anderson practiced as a trial lawyer for about 28 years in Jacksonville, including stints as an assistant state attorney and as a partner at Terrell Hogan Yegelwel, prior to taking the bench in 2017. The judge moved over from handling felony criminal cases to civil cases at the beginning of this year and was the point person for his court’s participation in Florida’s remote civil jury trial pilot project, which we previously wrote about in an earlier installment of “Holding Court” with a judge in Miami.  As part of the pilot project, Anderson has overseen two fully remote civil jury trials, including what appears to be the first subject to a binding verdict–a damages-only trial involving a default defendant which wrapped up in early August.