Concerns by prosecutors and victim family members have convinced the judge in a fatal 2008 tower crane collapse case to open his courtroom to a pre-trial proceeding originally planned to take place as an off-the-record telephone conference.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel Conviser will hold a hearing in the manslaughter case against James Frank Lomma in his courtroom at 10 a.m. tomorrow, said a lawyer connected to the case.

“This is victory for not only the families of the crane collapse but for public access to the courts as well,” said the lawyer, Susan Karten, who is repping the family of Ramadan Kurtaj, a construction worker killed in the E. 91st St. collapse.

The decision to open the courtroom came after lawyers for Kurtaj and for the other worker killed in the collapse, crane operator Donald Christopher Leo, sent a letter to the chief administrative judge of Manhattan Supreme Court, complaining that substantive, evidentiary issues in the case were being discussed by the judge and both parties by telephone, and without a transcript being created.

Prosecutors joined today in asking the administrative judge, Justice Michael Obus, in urging Conviser to hold any remaining pre-trial proceedings in open court, Karten said.

Lomma, head of New York Crane, has not been in court since Nov. 3, and had not scheduled to return until his trial date, now set at Feb. 21.