Can A Judge Really Get To Grips With My Divorce Via Zoom?
A colleague passed to me a clipping from one of this weekend’s papers where the writer set out her experiences of the Family Court and trying to deal with financial matters on divorce.
Whilst the writer’s comments about being able to take advice from her barrister via Zoom whilst wearing her pyjama trousers are amusing, her worries about how her case may be handled are typical of many family law cases. She wrote about how the delays that already existed in the family courts had only been made worse by the current situation and how the Judges who deal with family cases may not be able to fully appreciate the detail of individual cases via video links. These are concerns that have been raised by many families as we have moved through the coronavirus pandemic and had to find new ways of working.
It was as if the President of the Family Division of the Courts had heard her plea…
The President, Sir Andrew Macfarlane, has issued guidance – the ‘road ahead’ – to family justice professionals following a report by the Nuffield Foundation. In his guidance, the President acknowledges that the crisis has forced the family justice system to work in very different ways from the one those of us who work within it are used to and which clients are familiar with, if only from television or films.
As the guidance says, many of the Court buildings where hearings had traditionally taken place were forced to close and the legal profession, including the judiciary, to have to deal with cases and hearings by phone or video conferencing. That at times has proved challenging not only in terms of making sure that everyone has access to the hearing or Court but also, as the writer of the article said, to ensure that nothing is missed.
What Does A Future Court Hearing Look Like? Will it be via Zoom?
As Court buildings start to reopen, people may assume that the legal profession will fall back into its old ways; the President is clear in saying that is unlikely to be so in the foreseeable future, if at all.
His guidance sets out his thoughts for a blended family justice system where some cases or some parts of them continue to be dealt with by telephone or Skype or the Court’s own video platform. He recognises that some clients, perhaps the less technologically able or are vulnerable or where interpreters are needed, may need support and that solicitors’ offices or barristers’ chambers may be used so that the client can take socially distanced advice from their lawyer during hearings that are dealt with remotely. He also confirms that where the interests of justice require it, hearings in Court rooms can and should still take place.
He mentions that the Judiciary is acutely aware of the delays that existed prior to lockdown and how those have become so much worse. Do not, therefore, be surprised if we start to see ‘Nightingale Courts’ in hotels and leisure centres as the Court Service contracts with others to attempt to reduce and clear the troubling backlog of cases.
Can A Judge Really Get To Grips With My Divorce Via Zoom?
To answer the questions posed by the writer of the newspaper column, the Judges will be able to get to grips with her divorce. It may not be by Zoom but by Skype or the Court’s own secure system or by telephone or even a visit to a traditional Court building or a conference venue on a business park. What is clear is that this ‘new normal’ is likely to be just ‘normal’ in no time at all.
Adrian Rose
June 2020
https://www.judiciary.uk/announcements/the-family-court-and-covid-19-the-road-ahead/