I’ve been working with a wonderfully talented CS post-bacc student and Tanina Rostain from Georgetown’s Law School to develop a VR courtroom simulator for training law students. I never realized, but it makes perfect sense, that it is really difficult for law students to get any experience in an actual courtroom. I can’t imagine the bureaucratic hurdles to doing that and I’m sure it’s very expensive to build a replica (although the production designer in me thinks it would be a fun thing to try).

We’re adapting a web-based card game that they made some time ago to work as a complete VR simulation of the witness statement and cross-examination parts of legal proceedings. We’re looking at whether this kind of immersive simulation can help law students overcome some of the anxiety associated with being in court for the first time. From there the sky is the limit. I can imagine entire courtroom dramas played out in interact VR, although spending the entire length of a trial with a VR headset on seems like it would incapacitate you for at least three days afterward.