A Virtual Success ' Experiences With Online Hearings

• Published date: 17 June 2020
• Author: Marie McMorrow and Chris Robinson
• Subject Matter: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Strategy, Trials & Appeals & Compensation, Technology
• Law Firm: HGF Ltd

To assist with the continued operation of civil proceedings during the COVID-19 crisis, the courts have been allowing parties to conduct trials and hearings remotely. Given social distancing and the uncertainty of when courts and offices are due to reopen, remote hearings could represent a new normal for some while.

HGF Law LLP recently represented clients in a patent infringement appeal before the Court of Appeal and a hearing in trade mark infringement proceedings before the High Court and thought it useful to provide some first-hand insight into remote hearings. With excellent support from the Court clerks, the remote hearings worked well, and it will be interesting to see the extent to which courts will continue to allocate hearings to be heard remotely, post-lockdown.

Pre-hearing preparation

- As with a physical hearing you need to ensure that the Court is kept fully up to date and given all essential information. Providing lists of attendees (and emails for the hearing link), along with making sure any requirements like identifying the format (such as pdf) in which documents should be provided in are essential. As everyone gets to grips with the new processes, it is vital to open an early channel of communication with the court clerks.

- With any court hearing or trial there are a number of documents and pleadings to file, and it was important to check how the court would like each to be dealt with;

- Bundles - Although the Court of Appeal has helpfully introduced guidance for providing bundles electronically, it is worthwhile checking with the court what is required in your case. We provided electronic bundles, and the court requested that these be sent as PDFs with an index that is bookmarked with links to take you direct to the individual documents. We were also requested by the judges to provide hard copy bundles. Given that our UK offices are currently closed, we liaised with a third-party print provider to produce hard copies which were couriered direct to the judges.

- Authorities - The Court of Appeal was willing to accept authorities bundles electronically, which were uploaded to a document management system as PDF files. It is always best to check with the clerk that the documents have been received via the management system, just in case there are issues with uploads.

- Skeleton arguments - We sent these in Word format direct to the court clerk, then provided PDF copies of the replacement skeleton arguments (uploading these to the...