Enthusiasm for remote hearings appears to be falling away
Published on 17th Apr 2024
During lockdown, the English courts adapted well to fully remote hearings. However, we may be starting to see a return to in-person hearings as the default position – in the English Commercial Court at least
One of the parties in Michael Wilson & Partners Ltd v Emmott & Ors is resident in Kazakhstan and requested the hearing of an application to be held remotely because of the time it would take him to travel to an in-person hearing in London.
The judge said that, post-lockdown, "the default position of the Commercial Court, now that the pandemic has ended, is that hearings lasting half a day or longer should take place in court on an attended basis". He saw no reason to depart from that position here: a huge number of Commercial Court cases involve at least one party that is located abroad and this is not a "material consideration" when deciding whether a hearing should be remote or in person.
At most, the judge was prepared to direct that the hearing should take place at a time when the party would be in London anyway (provided that did not further delay the hearing).
