UK Courts Embrace Remote Hearings to Enhance Efficiency and Accessibility
Since 2020, courts have been adapting and evolving, initially in response to COVID-19 and now to enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness through advanced technology.
The Lord Chancellor, Alex Chalk, expressed approval for the updates made on April 29th in the UK judiciary’s case management revival handbook, which now includes provisions for attendance via video link when appropriate.
Remote hearings will be employed in various scenarios, including when the defendant is attending via prison video-link, during ground rules hearings, custody time limit extensions, uncontested POCAs, and hearings involving short legal arguments.
The advantages of remote hearings include saving on transport costs to the court, reducing time as remote hearings are typically quicker, enabling more hearings to be conducted in a day, and aiding in clearing backlog. This will also allow judges to allocate time to other responsibilities.
According to a report by the Law Society, remote hearings have already proven successful in several areas, including simple hearings with only judges and advocates, cases involving sophisticated parties and legal entities, and technical or administrative proceedings.
However, remote hearings may not be suitable for certain areas such as tribunals, criminal, county, and family courts, and cases involving vulnerable parties such as disabled individuals, the elderly, or those with traumatic experiences.
To ensure accuracy and efficiency in remote hearings, support services have been implemented, including virtual consultation rooms, built-in guidance for court users, on-demand support for participants to sign in and address connection issues, and interpretation services for those in need of translators.
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