The Scottish Solution to COVID-19

The Scottish Solution to COVID-19 Jury Trials

We have partnered with the Scottish Department of Justice to offer two of our cinemas as temporary courtrooms during the week, to help ease their current backlog of cases. This means that ODEON Edinburgh Fort Kinnaird will operate on reduced hours from 21st September and ODEON Braehead from 5th October.

We’ve all been longing to see new films but the latest venture by Odeon cinemas is hosting juries for the back-log of Scottish trials with social distancing.

The fifteen person jury required in Scotland is chosen in the original court location but then moved to cinema auditoriums with technology to enable them to see the trial from a safe distance, in the comfort of a cinema seat. Different screens ensure views of the judge, defendant, prosecuting and defending counsel. So far two cinemas only have been used, but the Scots government has earmarked a significant sum of money for the implementation of this innovation, which it expects to widen to other areas, to ensure that trials carry on without the risks of close contact in normal courts.

Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, chairs the Restarting Solemn Trials Working Group which developed this innovative solution of using cinemas and has also identified changes required to legislation and to rules of procedure to allow the appropriate use of digital solutions.

Could this indicate a new use for the cinemas in England and Wales which have been closing? ■