Sound advice for conference calls

Telephone hearings have been commonplace in civil courts since 1999. '¨As they have subsequently been expanded to cover a wider variety of hearings - I regularly hear short family directions by telephone - there are several ways practitioners can help the court, its staff and judges.

The rules covering telephone conferences in civil hearings are set out in CPR 23 and the practice direction 23A. In addition, the application notice must comply with paragraph 2.1 of the practice direction.
The application by letter must be made at least seven days before the hearing. It is often sent by fax the day before, which does not help.

But the difficulties I encounter are not at this stage - it is easy '¨to decide whether or not to allow a telephone conference. The problem often arises on '¨the day the telephone conference is listed.

Practitioners should be ready in advance for a telephone conference. The operator must have the correct telephone number and the time estimate must be adequate. If not, the conference may go part heard, with cost consequences.

Fault line

Sometimes the court is at '¨fault listing two telephone conferences at the same time before the same judge. In those circumstances, practitioners must be patient. The usher '¨will do their best to get the telephone conference rearranged as soon as possible.

Practitioners should be warned that court files are rarely shipshape. To assist the judge in multi-track cases, rule 6.12 requires a case summary and a draft order to be filed, and in other tracked cases if directed.

If the issue to be determined is based on expert reports or the pleadings, it would be helpful to file a small agreed bundle for the judge to read. It should include at least all the expert reports and the particulars of claim and the defence. I am often at my wits' end when the reports or pleadings to which the practitioners are referring are not in the file or I cannot find them (PD23 A 9.1).

Whether the case is multi-track, fast track or small-claims track, I will never object to being helped in advance by a bundle of files because the problems are the same if the reports or pleadings cannot be found.

Finally, on the speaker phones that are provided for judges, sound quality can be a problem. If you are on a mobile phone, make sure the signal is strong, try not to be driving at the time introduce yourself at the start and before every time you speak each time, and do not speak over others. It is bad enough in court but impossible when you are on the phone. SJ