Mr. Ken Murphy:

The remote hearings commenced in April on the initiative led by the Chief Justice, particularly in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court which are appellate courts. In many ways, these are more suited for remote hearings because they are more a forum for legal argument than for evidence. It has worked very successfully there. Among the issues has been whether the technology used for the remote hearings in the Supreme Court, High Court and Court of Appeal is as it should be because the technology being used was never designed for court hearings but for meetings. There were problems with it and the Law Society was happy to engage with the Bar, the Courts Service and others to try and set up better technological platforms. As the president of the Law Society has said, a lot of reviews of procedural matters are taking place by remote hearings now. We have followed the ongoing debate in the United Kingdom, which is having a similar experience to us, on how well remote hearings can work for evidence-based, witness-based cases. It is likely to be more problematic. The Law Society believes this is the way of the future for some cases. I agree with the chair of the Bar Council. I am in no way convinced that it is the way of the future for all cases. We should not go backwards now that we have come in an accelerated way to where we are.

One problem which the Courts Service suffers now is a cut in its income. Much of its income in the course of an annual financial year comes from certain types of applications which are made to court, such as special licensing applications. That income has been almost entirely lost. The Courts Service is suffering from deficiencies of income which is impacting its capacity to upgrade technology and, as the chair of the Bar Council suggested, to hire premises outside of court rooms to assist their use. There are real issues of investment both on the technological side and general support for access to justice in the courts system. I am sure that the Courts Service would make this point were it here, and I wish to make it on its behalf.