Paul Darling QC's thoughts on his Voice Skype hearing in the TCC today...

This morning I appeared on a two hour application by Voice Skype in the London TCC.

It was a great success.

It was set up by the Judge's clerk. He organised the parties – 3 in different locations - before the Judge came on line. Both the Judge and her clerk navigated the parties through the technicalities. There was the odd glitch – one participant could not access the link – but that was soon sorted. Overall it was easy to hear.  The parties made their submissions and the Judge gave Judgment. It worked very well.

When documents which were not in the bundle were needed we exchanged them by email. All the platforms appear though to have their own systems for exchanging documents during the call and no doubt experience will develop.

At the end of the hearing the Judge indicated a preference in future for Video Skype on the basis that video would make it easier for her to manage the hearing and in a particular who was speaking.

Hearings by these media are no doubt the future. If this experience was anything to go by the future is bright…