Court of Appeal hearing in London Stadium row to be livestreamed

A dispute about seating in the former London 2012 Olympic Stadium will be the first Court of Appeal hearing to be live-streamed in full.

If the pilot is judged successful, the Master of the Rolls, Sir Terence Etherton, said he would seek to extend live-streaming to family appeals. Such a move is supported by senior family judges.

The London Stadium case will begin on 15 November as a public pilot for a new service designed to increase public access to the work of the court.

West Ham United and E20, the stadium’s manager, disagree over what seating capacity that should be made available to the football club  for its home fixtures.

Live streaming will be available here.

Sir Terence said: “This is an exciting way of opening up our courts to help the public understand and see for themselves the way that courts work, and how appeals are heard. The first case is a high profile one with a great deal of public interest, which is why it has been selected for the public pilot.

“The intention is to have up to three appeal hearings being live-streamed in the near future, assuming that all works well with the public pilot. We hope that as well as opening up the court’s work to a mass audience, the broadcasts will increase public confidence in the system.”

Live-streaming of Supreme Court cases has been in place for some years but in the Court of Appeal only limited material has been shown since this started in 2013.

The image broadcast will be a split screen of the judicial bench and the front rows of counsel in the case.

There will be a short delay in the live feed to ensure no inadvertent breach of a reporting restriction could be broadcast.

Mark Smulian