Proposed video hearings are fraught with potential problems, the chair of the Young Barristers’ Committee has said
Video hearings have already been introduced, and the government aims to roll them out more widely to remand hearings, plea and trial preparation hearings and civil interlocutory hearings, while there is ‘a raging debate’ on using them for final hearings and, if so, which, Athena Markides told the Bar and Young Bar Conference at the weekend.
‘Submissions by Skype’ seemed less impactful, she said, it was harder to focus on a screen for long periods of time and people on a screen often seemed more like TV characters.
‘What is more, there is preliminary research by third parties suggesting that evidence received on screens leads to different outcomes to evidence received in person. Specifically, people who received witness evidence on screens were more likely to resort to discriminatory bias when making decisions based on that evidence.
‘The research is still in its early stages, but this is obviously cause for concern.’
