It has been reported that Skype and FaceTime could be used to allow criminal defendants to take part in court hearings from home.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas, has insisted that using these communication technologies would be a great way of lowering the costs of administrative hearings that are held before the start of a trial.
Lord Thomas said: "A lot of the difficulties we have is that to make a court case work well you need a pre-trial hearing, but it is often very expensive to get a prisoner or a person who is out on bail to come to court with the lawyers, and I think a lot of this can be solved by the use of technology."
As these technologies are free and simple to use, this could be a great way of making pre-trial hearings faster and easier for everyone involved.
However, former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe has slammed the idea, insisting that seeing their demeanour in person is important during pre-trial hearings. She said: "It’s crucial to be able to see and hear the person in the dock speaking, actually I would have thought it’s basic common sense."
There may be issues with identifying the defendant and not being able to analyse their physical behaviour and demeanour, but if this is only for pre-trial hearings, it makes sense to not waste everyone’s time and energy on trips to court when it may only involve a brief exchange, as it is the trial itself that truly counts. Let us know in the comments if you agree: should defendants be allowed to remotely attend pre-trial hearings using the likes of Skype and FaceTime?
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