With three federal courtrooms in Kansas City brimming with the latest high-tech audio-visual equipment, you would think trials and hearings at the Charles Evans Whittaker Courthouse would have evolved into multimedia marvels.

Not just yet.

U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith, proprietor of one electronic courtroom, said he still is waiting for a tech-savvy lawyer to take advantage of his slick videoconferencing system.

"If I have a frustration, it is a reluctance to embrace new technology on behalf of the bar," Smith said recently. "A live teleconference will save a party thousands of dollars in travel costs for expert witnesses. Either they (lawyers) are unaware or they're unwilling to use it."

To interest more lawyers in the new gizmos, the court clerk's office recently published a brochure detailing the electronic upgrades and inviting attorneys to come in for training.

The improvements include videoconferencing, improved audio-conferencing, computer display inputs for lawyers at the counsel tables and big-screen monitors for the jury. Even the Elmo document display system -- a standard in U.S. courtrooms since the O.J. Simpson trial -- has been improved with touch-screen capability. That allows witnesses and lawyers to highlight portions of documents or photographs.

In addition to Smith's courtroom, those of Bankruptcy Judge Frank W. Koger and District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan also have the new gadgets.

Geoffrey Green, the clerk's courtroom technology specialist, is the keeper of this wizardry. He, too, is eager to see more lawyers get up to speed.

"It's going to change the way we do things," Green said.

Green pointed to a recent bankruptcy hearing, where lawyers in Delaware participated by videoconference, while parties elsewhere, including Massachusetts, joined by audio.

And though videoconferencing still is not routine in Kansas City, courthouses in outlying areas, such as Jefferson City, use it regularly. Green also noted that more jails and prisons are being equipped with such gear.

"It saves manpower and addresses concerns about security and safety by having them appear this way," he said.

Managing paper is one area where technology also can help, Green said. In paper-intensive civil cases or complicated white-collar fraud prosecutions, lawyers now can display documents electronically from their laptops, rather than hauling in boxes. And the lawyers now can search a mountain of electronic images in nanoseconds and then bring one up on screens for jurors to view.

The federal judiciary has been famously resistant to technological change, including the news cameras that are ubiquitous in state courts. But judges and court staff in the Western District of Missouri have an adventurous streak in them.

Federal court in Kansas City led the nation in adopting new computer technology that allows lawyers to file civil, bankruptcy and, most recently, criminal paperwork online.

Earlier this year, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts gave its highest employee award to clerk Pat Brune in Kansas City, noting that she and her staff now serve as the main information source for federal courts on electronic case filing.

"The judges of this district have been open to trying a lot of new things," Smith said. "That places us in the vanguard of districts across the country."

Now, if he can just get the lawyers to follow suit.

"We're all slow to embrace change. I don't fault this," Smith said. "I just wish they were quicker to come in and see how things work."

To contact Mark Morris, federal courts reporter, call (816) 234-4310 or send e-mail to mmorris@kcstar.com.