Webinar “Remote examination of administrative and civil cases: a look at reality”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is recommended for courts to organize court work and serve clients remotely, and to hold contact court hearings only in exceptional cases when they cannot be postponed to a later time. If during the first quarantine “live” hearings practically stopped, except for urgent cases, and oral hearings carried out by means of audio and video transmission were more exceptions to the rule than general practice, then during the second quarantine the situation changed and judges and litigants met more often to remote court hearings, nor did they proceed to a written examination, nor were the cases postponed. However, some judges reluctantly switch to the format of remote hearing of cases, despite its advantages (saving time, money, creating a certain “psychologically comfortable” environment for the parties). One of the reasons is the fact that there are still no clear legal regulations for the organization of remote hearings, which threatens to violate the procedural rights of the parties to a fair trial. It is true that the Council of Judges issued several recommendations regarding the organization of court work during the quarantine period, on the basis of which the presidents of individual courts adopted internal rules on how to organize hearings during the quarantine.
Judges handling administrative and civil cases and persons participating in the cases are still following the guidelines for organizing remote hearings and recording their progress approved by the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania almost a decade ago, revised a year ago, which were obviously not created in the conditions of a global pandemic. Therefore, this vacuum of legal regulation was filled precisely by the joint efforts of the presidents of the courts “soft law”. However, the threat of remote hearings to the right to effective judicial defence has not disappeared – the procedural standards of their management continue to be discussed.
On 20th of May 2021 the webinar “Remote examination of administrative and civil cases: a look at reality” organized by the Faculty of Law of VU addressed the impact of COVID-19 on procedural justice, the legal regulation of the organization of remote court hearings and other issues, because “not every case can be examined remotely today, however, we are not alone in looking for solutions – the issue of remote hearings has become the subject of international discussions, both the possibilities of such a process and possible threats to the individual’s right to a fair trial are discussed” (S. Rudėnaitė, Chairwoman of the Council of Judges, 2020).
Read more about the ideas expressed here (in Lithuanian).