Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to the first of a three-part practical guide to the conduct of remote cost hearings produced by members of the King's Chambers cost team. They are all short videos with PowerPoints taking you step-by-step through the recent guidance note on the conduct of remote cost hearings hosted on the ACL's website. It's understood that the guidance note has already been adopted by the regional cost bench and has been warmly welcomed by the SCCO, so because of this practitioners would be well advised to become familiar with its contents as its use is likely to increase over the next few months. You will all no doubt have seen the various official protocols and practice directions that have emerged during the currency of the pandemic, along with the further practical guidance that has been issued by the various lead presiding judges and designated civil judges from circuits. Those protocols of course remain precedent to this note, however they do not offer any specific guidance as to cost hearings. It's understood therefore that the guidance note was intended to bridge that gap. Assessment hearings are of a type which are well suited to remote hearings with a little adaptation from the profession and the guidance note which you'll find the link on screen intends to walk you through those minor necessary changes. The guidance note can be found by following the link or alternatively you can access it by going to the ACL's website, going to the costs pub tab and then scrolling down to the bottom until you find the note. The note can be downloaded as a PDF and saved onto your computers or it can simply be printed out and used for a paper copy. There are three sections to the guidance note and each of these short videos engages with one of those sections. In the first part we'll be looking at how to get your case to court and to be heard by remote means. Whilst I am presenting the workload in producing this talk has been shared equally between myself and Craig Ralph and I am indebted to him for the production of these slides. The baton is then going to be passed across to Kevin Latham and Paul Hughes who will look at the important aspect of e-bundle preparation. Then finally Andrew Hogan and Matthew Smith will conclude matters by looking at specific issues in relation to bundling, hosting and also matters which can pop up during the course of the hearing itself. So getting your case to court. Whilst we all await the happy return of simply sending in your N258 paper copy and awaiting a court paper copy order there are a few additional steps that the parties ought to take during the pandemic to ensure that their cost hearing can take place remotely. These steps are not particularly onerous and they do come with a healthy dose of common sense so they ought not to be too burdensome to undertake and hopefully they will come with the reward of having your case heard remotely. There are four elements within the guidance note to deal with how practically the parties can get their cases to court. They are covered off at paragraph 6 to 16 and encapsulate the four following issues. Scope, communication method, request procedure and consideration by the court. Scope you will find set out at paragraph 6 to 7. It encompasses the usual suspects so detailed assessment or reviews, approval hearings for deductions from damages. Helpfully it is wide in scope and covers the following situations. Those cases where hearing dates have been requested pre-pandemic but have not yet been listed. Those cases which are already listed and are due to be heard during the currency of the pandemic. It is anticipated that this category is likely to encompass the lion's share of cases. Thirdly those hearings which have been listed but were adjourned in the first wave of response by the court. So as you can see it has a wide range of capability and effect. In respect of those hearings where you have yet to send in your N258 bundle and the process will be the usual steps, filing your N258 bundle but by e-methods and creating it by remote means, awaiting a court date and then following the guidance once the date has been listed if the case falls through the currency of the pandemic. So as you can see you can still request detailed assessment hearings during this time. However if you get a date back and it falls after pandemic measures have been lifted then hopefully normal service will be resumed and you will get an in-person hearing order. In that respect the guidance note is self-limited such that it only applies and operates during the currency of the pandemic itself. Finally note that the guidance note is only likely to apply where both parties are represented. So those solicitor act assessments where the lay client is self-representing are unlikely to benefit from the guidance note itself. That said a cooperative approach between parties is always to be welcomed and it may very well be that you have a tech savvy lay client as an opponent who may be very well comfortable in conducting a hearing remotely. It always pays of course to ask. Moving on to communication methods which can be found at paragraphs 8 and 9 of the guidance note. Unsurprising you will see that all communication is to be undertaken by email which is practically sound considering the current lack of ability for the courts to provide a significant telephone service at this time. Sensible matters are to be included within the email subject line covering off claim number, claim name, date and time of hearing. These of course are all measures which ought to have been undertaken pre-pandemic in any event but they're more important at this particular time because of the significant pressure which the court service is currently under being so significantly short staffed. So if you do comply with these requirements you are more likely to have a response those which do not comply are more likely to get put to the back of the queue. Note that some courts are requesting further specific information for example Sheffield is asking you to include the words in capital letters remote ready to indicate that your case is capable and ready to be heard remotely. As for the request procedure itself and there is a couple of additional steps that you'll have to take to ensure that your case is capable of being heard remotely. Firstly you'll have to decide on the mode of remote access best suited to your case be that video or by telephone. We're of course all very used to conducting telephone hearings and are easily able to spot those cases which are so suitable. Video hearings are the new kid on the block and they are more primarily suited to those cases which you would otherwise attend in person and this includes multi-day assessment hearings. The reason being of course that video hearings can contract and contract or expand as needed just as the in-person hearings did in themselves. The video platforms authorised for use by the judiciary you will find they're listed on screen. It is worth noting at present that the court system is very much officially wedded to Skype for Business. However all judicial computers ought to have Microsoft Teams enabled so we are informed. The difficulty is is that Skype for Business is a legacy app that is due to migrate over to Microsoft Teams by the end of the year. Now this may not cause you a problem if you're operating on a Windows application but there is reports of some difficulties being experienced by Mac users. The reason being is that on some Macs Skype for Business cannot access the microphone which is going to cause you a few problems. The courts are aware of this issue they call it the Mac problem and requests to be heard by Teams ought to be accommodated and indeed it would be sensible to notify the court of this particular problem if it's one you think you may encounter. Alternatively if you can't have your matter heard by Microsoft Teams the workaround is to download Skype for Business onto an iPad and utilise that and undertake all your paperwork as normal on your Mac. The second step is this once decided you will then need to obtain your opponent's agreement as to the mode and scope of your hearing. If you do want to have a preliminary issues hearing only you will need to identify those issues which are to be addressed by the court by reference to the numbered pods. As this is something that has been covered in directions hearing for a number of years now it ought not present any difficulties. If there is a failure to agree between the parties the parties ought to email the court setting out their differences whereupon directions will be issued. This does of course come with a note of caution that differences will inevitably lead to further delays whether that be by reference to further directions that have to be complied with, potentially a directions hearing or at worst wholesale vacation of your hearing. So this is only going to lead to further delay and increased costs so a cooperative approach would be beneficial. Finally one moves on to consideration by the court which can be found at paragraphs 15 and 16. This is the formal second stage once you and your opponent of course have reached agreement you will need to inform the court of the agreement itself in order for them to approve the agreed mode platform and scope. Do note that contact with the court ought to take place at least 20 business days before so that's around four weeks which is a rather lengthy run-up to the wicket so you will need to make sure that you're looking sufficiently far ahead to ensure that you are capable of complying with the court directions. Thereafter the approval order ought to follow alongside any further directions as to documents and e-bundles. Always read the order carefully as you would normally. If you disagree you'll have to liaise with your opponent about this. If they are also in difficulties of course you can file a consent order. Alternatively if the difficulties are only on your side you will just need to make a standalone application preferably within seven days of receipt of the order. The next step along this new path is bundle creation. This aspect does throw up particular issues in assessment not least because of the privileged nature of the assessment bundles and Kevin Latham and Paul Hughes are going to take you through that. So all that remains for me to say on both behalf of myself and Craig Ralph is thank you very much for watching. We hope you found it informative and useful. Goodbye.