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At 3 court hearings this morning conducted as telephone conferences, the official recording system, Darts, was not switched on. Yet when they came to a mention hearing with barristers actually in the room, they stopped to make sure it was recorded.
A week ago, reporters were locked out of a court hearing that should have been open - the reason was that it was a telephone hearing.
Under HMCTS reforms, telephone hearings are going to be much more common. Yet at the moment they are thought of as little more than a glorified conference call where normal rules of court don’t apply.
Doing hearing in this way is sensible when there is little to discuss and no sense in dragging barristers/judges all over the place. But @HMCTSgovuk must make it clear that the rules of the court cannot be compromised in the process.
