Please find a message from Her Honour Judge de Haas Q.C. below
(dated 20 March 2020)
I hope that you have all now read the President’s guidance. This makes it very clear that remote hearings are the general rule but hearings in court with some or all parties can still be considered where appropriate.
The judiciary, together with HMCTS admin staff are currently reviewing the court lists for the next 6 weeks to identify which cases are suitable for remote hearings and which are not and they will be in touch with all court users over the coming days.
For Liverpool, BT Conferencing will be the general method of facilitating such hearings. As far as the practical arrangements are concerned to make this happen each judge will be allocated a named listing clerk and they will be the liaison between the parties and the judge. The responsibility for arranging the conference call will be with the applicant’s solicitor or the respondent’s solicitor if the applicant is a Litigant in person.
When both parties are Litigants in person they will be contacted to explain that hearings will take place by telephone. These will be facilitated by a clerk in court and the telephone hearing will be recorded.
Listing will now be on a timed basis starting at 10.00am and you will be notified as to the time of the listing . Barristers/Solicitors/CAFCASS must be available at their allocated time.
At the end of every hearing the Judge will obtain a hearing date from listing for the next hearing unless it is a final hearing.
Orders must also be sent to the Judge in the usual way.
This guidance will take effect from Monday 23rd March 2020.
Her Honour Judge de Haas Q.C.
Designated Family Judge Cheshire Merseyside