17 March 2021
The Chancellor of the High Court, Sir Julian Flaux, floated the idea of a four-day sitting week in the Chancery Division, as in other Business and Property Courts, in a speech to the Chancery Bar Association last week.
On remote hearings, he said the courts now knew committal hearings, elements of a trial involving assessment of a witness’s credibility and interim applications involving a litigant in person were examples of matters best conducted live.
He emphasised that the courts must guard against ‘unintended consequences of informality’, noting that doorbells and barking dogs can be distracting.
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