The President Hearing hangovers

Well this lockdown thing is certainly wearing a little thin now, isn’t it? As each extension has arisen, I’ve tried my best to remind myself about how far we’ve come since the working from home world landed on us in March. With each extension of the lockdown restrictions we have learned many new skills, and indeed have become quite adept at, developing work arounds and managing our businesses remotely. At VPELA, the transformation has been phenomenal and some great benefits have evolved, including the opportunity for significantly higher levels of participation in our webinars and events.

Our annual conference is no exception. For the first time, our conference will be run entirely online during November. I encourage you to support the conference by registering as a delegate and attending as many of the webinars as you can, including our keynote address with special guest, Adam Goodes.

No doubt you’re also experiencing extreme screen fatigue by now. While this was a phenomenon that we all noticed early in the year, the onset of online hearings has certainly added to that fatigue.

Tamara Brezzi President, VPELA

during a hearing day, it’s no wonder that many have reported experiencing ‘hearing hangover’ the day after a hearing. Bearing these things in mind, I encourage you to consider the following suggestions to assist in the additional self-care necessary to handle your workload during these challenging times:

- Block out the morning after a hearing or big screen day to attend to less taxing administrative tasks, catch up with a friend for a walk or do some exercise to give your busy but exhausted brain time to recover;

Oneinsightinparticular stuck with me – it’s more physicallyexhaustingtorun onlinehearings.Thisarisesas a consequence of numerous factors,butinmyview,it’s primarilyconcernedwiththe fact that all of our senses have to work in overdrive in order to participateinonlinehearings.

In our webinar on 30 September, we brought together practitioners (Colleen Peterson (Ratio), Mark Sheppard (kinetica) and Greg Tobin (Harwood Andrews) to explore our insights and tips for dealing with online hearings having regard to the fact that they are now here to stay with us for some time.

The discussion concerning preparation for hearings, attending to your virtual court room setup and advocacy and giving expert evidence was a helpful one, highlighting that while there are some time efficiencies associated with online hearings (such as not having to commute to VCAT etc), much of the preparation and hearing attendance is taking longer and is generally more taxing than running hearings in person. One insight in particular stuck with me – it’s more physically exhausting to run online hearings. This arises as a consequence of numerous factors, but in my view, it’s primarily concerned with the fact that all of our senses have to work in overdrive in order to participate in online hearings. While we might usually rely heavily on sight to gauge body language, that opportunity is lost in this environment. While we might usually rely on our hearing to gauge nuance in questions being asked or submissions being made, the nature of internet filtered sound necessarily results in a flattening of the tone of audio, making it necessary for our brains to strain to hear, understand and process the nuance of what is being said or asked. Each of our senses is therefore forced to heavily compensate for the other, resulting in the screen fatigue we’re experiencing. Coupled with the pre and post hearing meetings with clients, and managing various devices for communication

- Find an opportunity to take a walk and get some fresh air, even if it’s just around the block, without talking on the phone (and preferably listening to some music) in the middle of a big screen day to give your senses time to reset for the afternoon ahead;

- Have a checklist of things you need to do in the days prior, and on the morning of, a hearing so that you’re not reinventing the wheel each time you have to prepare for an online hearing (and view our webinar online for some tips about what that checklist might include);

Self-care has never been more important than it has been this year. Please let us know if there’s anything more we can be doing at VPELA to assist the membership. .

Tamara Brezzi is President of VPELA and a Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright

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New Board Members Elected

The results of our 2020-21 Election are in. Congratulations to returned Board Members; Meg Lee, Hall & Wilcox, Christina McRae, Urbis and Adam Terrill, Tract Consultants.

Welcome to our new Members; Mark Sheppard, kinetica, Ellen Tarasenko, Herbert Smith Freehills and Mia Zar, Tract Consultants.

Full new Member profiles will be featured in our October 2021 Revue.