Remote Hearings

The practice direction underpinning the operation of the Commercial Hub of the High Court is being amended to allow for remote hearings, the commercial judge has announced. In a statement, Mr Justice Horner said the Hub would remain "open for business" in spite of coronavirus restrictions and their

Concerns have been raised over the fairness of remote hearings in family cases, introduced during the lockdown, because of the difficulty for participants in reading each other's reactions. A rapid consultation carried out by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (NFJO) on the effectiveness of rem

More remote hearings should take place in the High Court as "a way of tiding us over until we get back to physical hearings", a senior judge has said. Mr Justice David Barniville, a High Court judge and president of the Association of Judges of Ireland (AJI), told The Irish Times that the technology

A senior barrister was forced to pick up the phone in front of three judges yesterday, as courts continue to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic with remote hearings. Michael Delaney SC was in the middle of making a complex legal argument before the “virtual” Court of Appeal when an office

Remote courts technology "may or may not" suit cases where spoken or sign language interpreters are needed, the Courts Service has said. A pilot of remote hearings began in the Irish courts this week but the technology remains "very much in its infancy", a spokesperson told Irish Legal News.

Lawyers have called for Northern Ireland's planning system to "catch up" with the rest of the UK by introducing remote hearings during the coronavirus pandemic. The Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) has confirmed in a letter to the Northern Ireland Planning Bar Association (NIPBA) that it is "taking

Remote courts technology is not ready for criminal trials with juries, the head of the Criminal Bar Association in England and Wales has said. After observing a mock remote jury trial, Caroline Goodwin QC concluded that "the technology is not there to deliver a safe and fair trial", The Times report

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has launched a consultation on remote hearings during the coronavirus pandemic. All adjudication hearings, face-to-face conciliations and meditations, and on-site inspections have been postponed until after Tuesday 5 May 2020.

The first-ever remote hearings in the Irish courts began in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal this morning as part of a pilot of the new technology. The pilot was announced earlier this month in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the administration of justice.