Early and late sittings to be piloted in civil and family courts

The Ministry of Justice has announced plans to pilot early and late sittings in civil and family courts outside the traditional court sitting times of 10am to 4pm.

The pilots are expected to begin in spring 2019 in courts in Manchester and Brentford, Middlesex and run for six months.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service has established cross-agency Local Implementation Teams who will be responsible for overseeing the detailed planning in each pilot site.

However, following feedback on the initial Flexible Operating Hours (FOH) Pilot Prospectus, which was published in October 2017, the MoJ has ruled out testing the changes in the criminal courts, saying there were “currently particular pressures” in that jurisdiction.

The Government claimed that flexible operating hours would give people “greater access to hearings that can fit around their busy lives”. It also said the pilots would consider “what more flexibility means for staff and legal professionals”.

The MoJ’s latest prospectus said that the case types proposed for inclusion in the pilots were chosen following input from the legal sector and local judiciary, and views of court users and professionals would be taken in to account in the evaluation.

The Manchester pilot is set to include urgent care applications – “these are cases which would routinely be heard anyway, currently requiring a judge to stay late but can instead be heard in the pilot court when there is an appropriately ticketed judge”, housing possession cases (“subject to changes to the rota for provision of a duty solicitor”) and small claims.

The Brentford pilot is set to include warrant suspensions, small claims, telephone case management hearings, and civil applications (lasting either less than 30 minutes or less than 60 minutes).

Justice Minister Lucy Frazer said: “We want to make our courts and tribunals more accessible to the public. This pilot assesses whether and how we can give people greater flexibility in their busy lives.

“We listened carefully to the views of legal professionals and others before going ahead, and as a result flexible operating hours are not being piloted in criminal courts. We will now test different options relating to operating hours in two civil and family courts and an independent evaluation will be carried out before any decisions are made about further roll-out.”