The Fairfax County General District Court’s courtrooms support display of evidence from user-supplied devices such as laptops, phones, or tablets. The Courtroom Technology Management System (CTMS) enables parties to present evidence simultaneously to everyone in the courtroom through a network of monitors and flat screen televisions. For more information about the CTMS system and courtroom technology generally, please visit the Courtroom Technology Office (CrTO) website.
We recommend that you test your equipment in advance of your court date. We are happy to schedule a date and time to do so, and will be happy to answer questions you have about the system as well. We generally schedule testing between 8AM-9AM or 12PM-1PM, Monday-Friday, but we can try to make other times work with sufficient notice.
Please email the General District Court IT Department at GDC-HelpDesk@fairfaxcounty.gov to set up an appointment. Please include details such as: Case number, hearing date, attorney's names, and the types of evidence to be presented, so we can best assist you.
Note: We do not schedule tests for the same day as your scheduled court date.
Evidence Display via Laptop
The tables and podiums in the courtrooms contain built-in HDMI cables that can be plugged into your device. Once plugged in, your laptop will see the courtroom system as if it were a monitor. You can display audio, picture, or video evidence using this connection.
Note that while the majority of laptops have built in HDMI ports, some (notably MacBooks and other ultra-thin laptops) do not. You will need to provide your own adapter if your laptop does not have a built-in HDMI port.
We recommend that you save any evidence that you wish to display in court locally to your device. Cloud storage is not always accessible, especially if your wireless connection encounters problems.
Evidence Display via iOS/Android
iOS and Android phones both support a feature called Screen Mirroring, which allows you to wirelessly display what your phone is currently doing to another screen wirelessly. Our CTMS system has a secured wireless network specific to each courtroom. You can connect to that network and use it to mirror your screen to the courtroom.
Note that because of how the network is secured, you will not be able to see the Internet while using this feature. This means that any evidence you wish to display must be saved locally to your device. You will not be able to reach any cloud storage while using this option.
Note on Portable Storage
Due to security concerns, we do not allow any external storage (such as USB drives, flash drives, or other external storage media) to be plugged into any Court computers or courtroom equipment. You can use information contained on portable media when plugged into your own device as noted in the sections above.
