U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu of the Northern District of California says that in the nearly two years since the onset of the global pandemic, she’s fielded just one request for a settlement conference she’s handling to move forward in-person rather than via Zoom. And she’s handling even more settlement conferences now than she was prior to the pandemic.

“Really, everybody else in two years has said where there’s been a choice, ‘We want to do it by Zoom.’ So I know how the lawyers and the clients are voting,” Ryu said.