Colombia court moves to metaverse to host hearing

A Colombian court this month hosted its first legal trial in the metaverse, and now hopes to experiment again with virtual reality, authorities told Reuters.

At the two-hour hearing held by Colombia’s Magdalena Administrative court, participants in a traffic dispute appeared as avatars in a virtual courtroom. Magistrate Maria Quinones Triana’s avatar dressed in black legal robes.

The country is among the earliest worldwide to test real legal hearings in the metaverse, immersive virtual reality to make digital spaces feel more lifelike, often with avatars representing each participant.

“It felt more real than a video call,” Quiones told Reuters on Friday, describing the metaverse experience as “amazing.” On Zoom, she noted, “Many people turn off their cameras, you have no idea what they’re doing,”

The case – brought by a regional transport union against the police – will now proceed partly in the metaverse, potentially including the verdict, Quiones said. She did not rule out metaverse hearings elsewhere.

“This is an academic experiment to show that there it’s possible… but where everyone consents to it, (my court) can continue to do things in the metaverse,” she added.

While legal trials have increasingly moved to video meetings hosted by Zoom and Google, few have experimented with the metaverse, a space that Meta (META.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O) and other tech giants are racing to build.

Early examples of interviews and meetings in the metaverse have been mocked for often-clunky, cartoonish visualizations.

Nonetheless, Colombia’s court proceedings on Feb 15 – streamed to Youtube – went off without too much of a glitch, bar some dizzying camera movement and some distorted movements.