Time travelling in law: the best of both worlds

JUNIOR LAWYERS DIVISION

Time travelling in law: the best of both worlds

The outbreak of COVID-19 fundamentally altered our ways of working. It accelerated the adoption of new technologies in an attempt to enable us to work closely together, despite having to stay apart. For every legal practitioner who was daunted by this seismic shift, many more embraced it. Over a year later, there is much to be said in respect of where we are, what we have learned and what we will incorporate going forward.

Adopting technology

In a year where entertaining guests has not been possible, the one visitor we have had to welcome into our homes is work. By forcing the adoption of remote working, the pandemic has disproved the naysayers and has even increased productivity in many cases. However, remote working has brought its own challenges in terms of mentally disconnecting from work. With no obvious end to the working day, we have had to quickly learn how to establish non-physical boundaries. Without doing so, we are at risk of feeling as if we are living at work as opposed to working from home. From March to June 2020, LawCare found that 42% of their helpline calls were directly related to COVID-19. 1 This is somewhat unsurprising given the unique and radical circumstances that we quickly had to adapt to.

As practitioners, we have had to collate and navigate digital court applications, documents and eBundles and we have therefore seen developments towards paperless working. According to HMCTS, the number of family, civil and criminal cases involving remote technology has increased by 90% since March 2020. 2 In family law, we have moved away from lodging divorce petitions and applications at the court and have instead seen the expansion of the ‘MyHMCTS’ online platform. Through this digital channel, financial remedy consent orders now take one week digitally to turn around, compared to 20 weeks (or more) on paper. Admittedly, we have experienced glitches here and there however, we have seen many rectifications to the system already.

Building relationships

As our homes have become our new place of work, relationships that were traditionally developed in or around offices are now built virtually through remote platforms. We have had to change our approach to communicating with colleagues, networking with peers and establishing client relationships. For many clients, remote working has helped to circumvent the potential impracticalities of geographical location. It has offered clients an ability to make appointments with their legal advisors quickly by communicating via telephone or video call. This new approach has many benefits such as increased accessibility and flexibility for clients and practitioners, potential costs savings and a reduction in carbon footprint. However, virtual meetings do not suit all clients and the lack of face-to-face contact carries the risk of reduced communication and information shared.

We have also seen networking and social events transfer from an office or the local pub to in front of our computer screens in our living rooms. Within the world of family law, there have

been an array of virtual conferences, webinars, seminars and activities to keep us entertained. The remoteness and on-demand nature of such events has been beneficial in the sense of improved accessibility; nevertheless, it is undeniably more challenging to build meaningful relationships on virtual platforms.

Attending court

Since March 2020, we have also witnessed significant and radical changes to the court system. The advent of remote hearings provided an opportunity for the courts to devise a new way of delivering justice that is quicker, more cost-effective and allows greater access to justice. This is an exciting prospect, but does it do what it says on the tin?

According to a study in October 2020, 86% of legal professionals within the family justice system considered remote hearings to be working efficiently. 78% felt that fairness and justice had been achieved in the cases they were involved in most or all of the time. 3 The practical barriers of attending court are reduced and the geographical location of hearings is no longer a consideration, creating the potential for swifter access to justice. Indeed, Sir Andrew McFarlane (the president of the Family Division) has even confirmed that some family courts had adapted so well that they no longer had a backlog of cases. 4

That said, remote hearings are not suitable for all cases. In family law, hearings such as initial appointments, directions hearings and case management hearings are well suited for digital platforms. Others, such as those involving crossexamination or where substantive issues are being heard, do benefit from being heard in person.

There is also a concern that some clients may not feel supported during remote hearings. Indeed, the same report found that 40% of clients said that they did not understand what had happened during their remote hearing. 5 Other disadvantages may arise from barristers not having an opportunity to speak to their opponent in person with a view to narrowing the issues beforehand and there being no human engagement between the participants in a virtual courtroom. The psychological effect of going to court is inevitably diminished. It will be essential to overcome these issues if remote hearings are to become a permanent feature of our justice system.

Finding a new balance

As we establish a new equilibrium between the old world and the new world, we must adopt an adaptive approach when building relationships with clients, colleagues and peers. Discretion must be used to decide whether it is more appropriate for some meetings or events to take place virtually or whether they may benefit from face-to-face interaction. We will undoubtedly see the emergence of flexible working policies across the legal sector, which carries the exciting opportunity for a reduced cost base and improved profitability for law firms, enhanced productivity and a better work life balance for legal practitioners (once we have mastered establishing the non-physical boundaries). I predict that the competing attractiveness of such policies will become a key decision making factor in the job market as employees seek to find their new sustainable work life balance. As remote working becomes more prevalent, it will be important to develop a tool set for establishing such non-physical boundaries so that we are mentally better equipped to handle this way of working. Of course, the shift of reliance from paper to digital highlights the ever-growing importance of data and digital security and going forward, firms and individuals will also have to remain ever more vigilant of this.

It is also likely that we will see remote hearings remain a permanent component of our justice system. Depending upon the type of hearing to be listed, I hope that a range of suitable options may become available to clients and legal practitioners and this could include a ‘hybrid solution’ whereby clients and their legal practitioners are co-located whilst attending a remote hearing. Certainly, in family law where life-changing decisions are being made, we must do what we can to take on board on the client’s preferences and minimise the barriers to achieving a supportive and empathetic environment.

Given the shadow of the pandemic, it is easy to overlook the achievements of the past year. However, we must remind ourselves of the lessons learned and focus on the positive benefits, of which there are many. It is difficult to know exactly what the future may look like, however I believe that drawing from the experiences of the past and the lessons of last year will allow us to incorporate the best of both worlds, and create an even better future. ■

Felicia Munde

Felicia Munde

Trainee Solicitor at Dawson Cornwell

I am interested in connecting with other legal professionals who are interested in supporting the creation of our future way of working. If anyone has any interesting thoughts on this, please do reach out.

1. https://www.ft.com/content/24428ce4-a99c-11ea-abfc- 5d8dc4dd86f9

2. www.gov.uk/government/news/new-video-tech-toincrease-remote-hearings-in-civil-and-family-courts

3. www.nuffieldfjo.org.uk/news/remote-hearings-challengefairness-empathy

4. www.legalfutures.co.uk/features/family-courts-meet-thecovid-challenge

5. www.nuffieldfjo.org.uk/news/remote-hearings-challengefairness-empathy