REMOTE HEARINGS: CHILDREN CASES: GUIDANCE FROM THE COURT OF APPEAL
Civil litigators may well be able to gain some assistance from the guidance being given in children cases. The Court of Appeal gave judgment today in Re A (Children) (Remote Hearing: Care and Placement Orders). a-children-judgment-300420 [2020] EWCA Civ 583
THE CASE
The judge in a case concerned with the welfare of children and matters relating to domestic violence and emotional and physical harm gave directions for a “hybrid” trial to take place. The parents were to attend in person to give evidence before the judge. It was anticipated that one counsel would be present in court, the rest appearing remotely.
THE JUDGMENT
The Court of Appeal made some observations of wider interest.
2. This case is the first appeal in a case relating to the welfare of children to reach the
Court of Appeal on the issue of remote hearings during the COVID 19 pandemic. The
appeal was heard on 22 April 2020. On the following day the same constitution heard
the second such appeal, Re B (Children) (Remote Hearing: Interim Care Order) [2020]
EWCA (Civ) 584. There will undoubtedly be further appeals in children cases heard in
the High Court or the Court of Appeal on the issue of remote hearings in the coming
weeks.
3. Against that background we wish to stress the following cardinal points with the utmost
emphasis:
i) The decision whether to conduct a remote hearing, and the means by
which each individual case may be heard, are a matter for the judge or
magistrate who is to conduct the hearing. It is a case management
decision over which the first instance court will have a wide discretion,
based on the ordinary principles of fairness, justice and the need to
promote the welfare of the subject child or children. An appeal is only
likely to succeed where a particular decision falls outside the range of
reasonable ways of proceeding that were open to the court and is,
therefore, held to be wrong.
ii) Guidance or indications issued by the senior judiciary as to those cases
which might, or might not, be suitable for a remote hearing are no more
than that, namely guidance or illustrations aimed at supporting the judge
or magistrates in deciding whether or not to conduct a remote hearing in
a particular case.
iii) The temporary nature of any guidance, indications or even court
decisions on the issue of remote hearings should always be remembered.
This will become all the more apparent once the present restrictions on
movement start to be gradually relaxed. From week to week the
experience of the courts and the profession is developing, so that what
might, or might not, have been considered appropriate at one time may
come to be seen as inappropriate at a later date, or vice versa. For
example, it is the common experience of many judges that remote
hearings take longer to set up and undertake than normal face-to-face
hearings; consequently, courts are now listing fewer cases each day than
was the case some weeks ago. On the other hand, some court buildings
remain fully open and have been set up for safe, socially isolated,
hearings and it may now be possible to consider that a case may be heard
safely in those courts when that was not the case in the early days of
‘lockdown’.