FTT face to face hearings

No, not at all in Glasgow, for us anyway.

My first round of hearings listed for April were all postponed but have since taken place via conference call.

I’ve not had any provisional decisions either.

Someone from the Tribunal Centre Glasgow told me that a return to F2F hearings in September may be on the cards.

Susan

Just had sight of this saying that some will be resuming in the Midlands in August/September…

Hi Janine,

There are no plans for HMCTS to routinely run any face to face hearings in the North West during the remainder of 2020. Upon resumption the need for the various precautions means they will likely run at 50% capacity given the need to clean between hearings etc. In the meantime, face to face can run in the most exceptional of circumstances where other alternatives are not appropriate and HMCTS have laid those out in very broad terms in their guidance. It assumes that venues have been able to provide a room where both the appellant, PO, clerk and panel can all be fully socially distanced.

So, you need to check if the client fits the exceptional circumstances and whether your local venue (or possibly somewhere else within GM) is good to go.

Mike, I had heard that 01 Hearings (judge sitting alone) are going to start again soon in the North West. Is this not correct? I know that some judges have been back working in Manchester for a while (without actually seeing people)

I think salaried 01s have probably been triaging in the CJC as you may as well go where the paperwork is. No impression they’ve been doing it that often though.  I think there’s an intent salaried 01s will sit where practicable on the exceptional cases but I doubt there’s much behind that. Building and public transport restrictions are going to cut it to the bare bones.

In SE England it was taking over 52 weeks to get a hearing before Covid, main court venue still has no face to face hearings. Try this court tracker for the venues you use.

https://courttribunalfinder.service.gov.uk/search/

Of interest, but no clues about when specific courts will re-open is HMCTS recovery plan

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus

Best wishes

Mark

Law Cente NI reports that the NI Appeals Service is aiming to commence hearings using technology options from 28 September 2020 and is working towards resuming all face to face hearings although not to the same degree as pre-COVID.