Remote Hearings

A partner at a City of London firm has been sanctioned for wrongly advising her clients that they could share a Zoom link for a remote court hearing. Ziva Robertson, partner at US-headquartered McDermott Will & Emery, received a written rebuke from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) on Mo

A public consultation has been launched on the use of "live link" video and audio conference systems in Northern Ireland courts and tribunal hearings. The consultation, running until 26 September 2022, seeks views on the future use of live links as part of the digital improvement and modernisation o

It is not acceptable for lawyers to join remote court hearings from their cars or wearing informal attire, a senior judge has ordered. A new practice direction issued by the president of the High Court, Mrs Justice Mary Irvine, sets out the need for remote hearings to be "conducted in a manner which

More than a million audio or video connections have been made for remote and hybrid hearings in the Northern Ireland courts between the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 and the end of December 2021. The Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS) said 56 courtrooms are now digi

The Northern Ireland courts are relying on Westminster to ensure that remote hearings can continue to take place in the criminal courts beyond spring 2022, justice minister Naomi Long has said. Mrs Long has expressed concern that repeal of the UK's Coronavirus Act 2020 "would make it impossible to c

Personal injury cases involving witnesses can now be heard remotely following the roll-out of more advanced technology, the Courts Service of Ireland has announced. There were difficulties with the Pexip platform used for remote hearings since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in cases involvi

Justice should continue to be administered in person after the pandemic, The Bar of Ireland, the Bar Council of Northern Ireland, the Faculty of Advocates and the Bar Council of England and Wales have said. The four bars said in a statement that they recognised "the justice system has undergone chan

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) held 2,000 fewer adjudication hearings last year than it otherwise would have due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to its annual report for 2020, the WRC held 1,899 adjudication hearings last year, 1,609 of which were face-to-face and 290 which were virtua

The Supreme Court ended 2020 with its lowest waiting times in memory and no backlog of cases following a year of challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. A case granted leave to appeal today could have a full hearing scheduled as soon as June with waiting times down to a historic low of 14 weeks &

Some lawyers were unmuted in remote court hearings without their knowledge on Monday due to a technical problem, the Courts Service has said. There were confusing scenes in virtual courts on Monday as barristers who had muted themselves were still picked up on their microphones.

The High Court has ruled that a Commercial Court case will be heard using the remote hearing platform TrialView, despite objections from the defendant. The court considered the provisions of the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020, which allows a court of its own motion to

Family lawyers have welcomed the commencement of remote family court hearings this week. Mr Justice John Jordan, the judge in charge of the family list of the High Court, has published a notice setting out the court's approach to remote hearings from yesterday.

Remote hearings are not delivering effective access to justice in Northern Ireland's family courts, research by an Ulster University academic suggests. The new report by Professor Gráinne McKeever on the impact of Covid-19 on the family courts, based on interviews with practitioners and litig

Scottish lawyers have voiced their opposition to any entrenchment of remote justice following comments from the Lord President that Scotland's legal system will not return to the status quo. Since the lockdown in March, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) has developed new digital

Professor Ursula Kilkelly, from University College Cork, considers the impact of remote hearings on the legal rights of children under Irish and international law. COVID-19's public health restrictions have necessitated changes in practice across the legal system. Principal among these is the increa