A key group of commercial litigation lawyers has been voluntarily helping the Courts Service to establish remote court hearings during the current coronavirus crisis.

The Commercial Litigation Association of Ireland (CLAI) represents barristers, solicitors and in-house counsel – its committee members have been offering assistance on a voluntary basis to the Courts Service.

The CLAI pooled its collective experience and knowledge to assist in developing  how remote hearings will work in this jurisdiction.

In this work, the CLAI was following the lead of the Chief Justice Frank Clarke and courts’ presidents who jointly issued a press statement before Easter, stating that they will do what they can to get remote hearings up and running.

Test mode

Currently, the Courts Service is in test mode for remote trial methods.

The Courts Service’s stated goal is to have remote hearings up and running by the start of the new legal term, on 20 April.

In the meantime, testing piloting and mock hearings will continue for the next two weeks.

Voluntary team

The voluntary team is hopeful that the establishment of the principles of remote hearings will ultimately have global application across all of the courts.

In the UK, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, has said that the default position now in all jurisdictions must be that hearings should be conducted with one or all participants attending remotely.

“All other hearings in the Crown Court that can lawfully take place remotely should do so,” he said.

Suspended

Jury trials have, however, been suspended since 23 March.

In recent weeks, the US Supreme Court said it would scrap its oral-argument schedule for the rest of the term, due to the virus.

Across the US, the position varies according to federal and state laws, with remote hearings ongoing in some jurisdictions.