Law Society President’s Charity Gala Dinner & The Online Court

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The Online Court

Over the last five years or so, there has been a move by the judiciary to move towards an online court. Within my area of law, Civil Litigation, this is generally taken to mean that cases with a monetary value of under £25,000, which would currently be allocated to small clams, fast track, or multi-track, would be dealt with on paper. There would be no automatic right to a hearing, and claims and responses would be filed on paper and determined by a Judge without a hearing. There have also been suggestions that some could be dealt with electronically via an artificial intelligence (AI) computer algorithm..

There are currently two main online pilots in operation, the Online Civil Claims pilot (7/08/2017 - 30/11/2023 and the Damages Claims Online Pilot (28/05/2021 - 30/04/2024). The latter has now been made compulsory from 4/04/2024.

During the Covid pandemic, courts were forced to change the way they operated, and this is speeding up the implementation process. Court hearings were held via telephone conference or CVP/ video conference. In line with this, hearing/ trial bundles and authorities’ bundles were often provided electronically rather than on paper.

This way of working had undoubted benefits in some areas. As a Solicitor Advocate, I do most of our advocacy. Previously I could be in court in London one day, and Newcastle the following day, which involved considerable travel and overnight accommodation. However, in a virtual world, I could do both cases from the comfort of my office, or even my home. Some days I have done a hearing in the morning and another in the afternoon, in different courts saving travel time. In addition,

where the court would accept electronic bundles, there was a considerable saving in time, materials, shipping, and consequent carbon emissions.

One of the first cases where this all came together was at the beginning of Covid lockdown. I had a case in the Court of Appeal, which was to be conducted via video conference. We contacted the court to ask how they wanted the bundles, and how many sets they required. Each set comprised 5 A4 lever arch files. The court asked us to provide an electronic ‘test’ bundle for the Judges to try out. We use a bundling system which enables us to provide fully hyperlinked and indexed electronic bundles, so these were provided to the court. About a week later, we were pleased to hear from the court that the Judges were happy to proceed with just electronic bundles and nothing was required on paper.

While CVP/video conference is a reasonable

substitute for an in-person hearing, I do not believe that it is ever going to be as good as being in the same room or court if it is being used for a trial. On the other hand, video conference is far better than telephone conference. I have taken part in probably 60 or so telephone conferences since the covid lockdown, and it is very difficult to ‘read’ the Judge or your opponent when you cannot see their faces or body language.

A key disadvantage for litigants without legal representation, especially those with accessibility needs, is that the difficulties they can face in participating. For instance, users without high-speed internet service or computers face significant hurdles when trying to access the courts online.

However, If the ‘powers that be’ have their way, in Civil Litigation, we will soon be embarking on testing for the new online court.

Law Society President’s Charity Gala Dinner

I attended the Law Society's Immediate Past President, I. Stephanie Boyce’s Charity dinner on 15 September 2022. Our Chair of the Sub- Committee for Marketing, Sukhjit Ahluwalia also attended with me.

The Charity Gala Dinner was to raise proceeds for the charities I. Stephanie Boyce has supported during her time in office as President - LawCare, The Sutton Trust and the Access to Justice Foundation.

The Bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-Wilkin made a wonderful and moving tribute to the Late Queen Elizabeth II. This was followed by a period of reflection and silence.

Christina Blacklaws hosted the event, which was very enjoyable. A magician entertained us during the reception - still cannot work out the trick he did! The food was delicious, the keynote speaker Jeremy Snape, former England cricketer was excellent as were the other speakers. The music was also good.

Sukhjit and I met up with the new Law Society Chief Executive, Ian Jeffrey as well as other interesting people such as Christina Blacklaws, Amir Ali OBE, Joanna Hughes, Craig Dade, and others.

I. Stephanie has informed us that each of her nominated charities will be receiving at least £20,000 each from the event which is good news.

spg.uk.com