‘The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has published guidance on the need to protect victims of domestic abuse in remote and hybrid hearings.’
Local Government Lawyer, 11th November 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘By way of introduction to this topic it is worth recalling that by the time the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 (“IR 2016”) came into force in April 2017 the Practice Direction on Insolvency Proceedings (“IPD”) had still not been updated to take account of the reforms introduced by IR 2016. Nor had it been updated to take account of the Electronic Working Pilot Scheme in CPR Practice Direction 51O (“EWPS”). In fact, there followed a significant period during which the IPD and IR 2016 were not compatible. The delay was at least in part caused by the reforms to the court system in England and Wales that resulted in the creation of the Business and Property Courts (“B&PC”). A new Practice Direction to govern the procedure in the B&PC came into effect in October 2017 and although subsequently supplemented by other changes, it was not until 25 April 2020 that a revised IPD, compatible with IR 2016, was finally released and even this was quickly superseded by a more definitively revised IPD on 4 July 2018. However, there were some significant anomalies with regard to the intermeshing of these various procedural rules and practice directions, not least in the area of out-of-court appointments of administrators.’
Hardwicke Chambers, 7th October 2020
Source: hardwicke.co.uk
“John Tughan QC of 4PB considers the latest judgments that Public law child lawyers need to know about.”
Family Law Week, 28th October 2020
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘Four in ten parents who have been involved in a remote family hearing say they did not understand it, a major study has discovered.’
Legal Futures, 28th October 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘The Court of Appeal allowed an appeal against a judge’s refusal to recuse herself after she was overheard making pejorative comments about a party during a break in a Zoom hearing, and brings the perils of a remote hearing into sharp focus. Tahmina Rahman, barrister at 1 GC Family Law, examines the issues.’
1 GC: Family Law, 21st October 2020
Source: 1gc.com
‘New mothers are having their babies taken into care during remote video and phone hearings from hospital, according to a report on justice during the coronavirus pandemic.’
The Guardian, 27th October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A particularly unwelcome issue for judges hearing cases remotely is that some of the most disturbing elements of serious family cases are being heard at home, a High Court judge reported last week.’
Legal Futures, 19th October 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘The family court system has adapted so well to remote working that some courts do not have a backlog of cases, the president of the Family Division said yesterday.’
Legal Futures, 15th October 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘The court system faces a trade-off between the quality of justice and the cost of delivering it, former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption has said in a biting assessment of virtual hearings. Speaking at the Commercial Litigators’ Forum, Lord Sumption (Jonathan Sumption QC) said if quality of justice was the only concern “we would go back to ordinary oral hearings.” ‘
Law Society's Gazette, 5th October 2020
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘The coronavirus pandemic created an impetus for the legal world to finally begin accepting digitalisation of processes, moving away from the traditional paper process to an online version. The immigration process is already faced with a myriad of concerns which leaves the applicant in a weak position, and most often, with a lack of funds to cover their costs. The Home Office’s inability to train and effectively manage applications, outsource services to dubious third-party contractors has been exacerbated further by the haphazard application of online processes which do not match the needs of the immigration process. Despite the fact that online applications are easier to complete for legal representatives a number of issues have arisen as a result of this sudden change.’
EIN Blog, 21st September 2020
Source: www.ein.org.uk
‘There is “a lot to be said” for telephone, rather than video, hearings from the perspective of open justice and parties should bear this in mind when deciding how to proceed, a High Court judge has said.’
Litigation Futures, 4th September 2020
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘A panel of top judges has issued guidance for expert witnesses on giving evidence remotely, which warns that “processing information through online contact is hard”.’
Litigation Futures, 3rd September 2020
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by a mother and the maternal grandparents against interim care orders made in respect of three children, saying the transcript of the hearing before the recorder “demonstrates once again the difficulties facing courts required to conduct hearings remotely because of the restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic”.’
Local Government Lawyer, 24th August 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The Lord Chief Justice called it “the biggest pilot project that the justice system has ever seen” and said “there will be no going back to February 2020”. Remote court hearings would have come sooner or later, but thanks to Covid-19 they came at us fast, in March 2020, and it looks like they’re here to stay. Ironically, they were one of the things the massive £1bn court modernisation programme was supposed to have developed, but when it came to the crunch HMCTS wasn’t quite ready so there was “the most extraordinary scramble”, said Professor Hazel Genn, to find solutions that worked.’
Transparency Project, 25th August 2020
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
‘A City firm which disobeyed a court order and allowed a libel trial to be live streamed to clients abroad has reported itself to the regulator.’
Law Society's Gazette, 7th August 2020
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘The president of the Queen’s Bench Division has strongly criticised lawyers in the London office of US firm McDermott Will & Emery (MWE) after they allowed a trial to be live-streamed to observers outside the UK without the court’s permission.’
Legal Futures, 7th August 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘In the second such case in a month, a judge has refused to recuse herself at the request of a litigant, but on this occasion the Court of Appeal has reversed that decision and ordered that she step down from the case and let another judge take over.’
Transparency Project, 3rd August 2020
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
‘Video and phone hearings are set to become a permanent feature of the Senior Courts Costs Office (SCCO) even after the coronavirus pandemic has passed, the Senior Costs Judge has said.’
Litigation Futures, 30th July 2020
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘Issue #35 of Spire Barristers’ Family Law Newsletter: edited by Connie Purdy and Taz Irshad; news and Case Reviews by Georgina Dalton.’
Spire Barristers, 22nd July 2020
Source: spirebarristers.co.uk
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