Evaluation of Remote Hearings during the COVID-19 Pandemic
At a glance
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) needed to evaluate experiences of remote hearings, which increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. We took a mixed-methods approach to assess the experiences of public users, observers and judges. The findings were used to enhance future remote hearing services, including the development of a new Video Hearings service.
About the client
HMCTS is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice in England and Wales. They are responsible for the administration of criminal, civil, and family courts, as well as tribunals. HMCTS ensures that the justice system operates efficiently and effectively, providing administrative support to facilitate court and tribunal processes.
Challenges and objectives
Due to restrictions created by COVID-19, HMCTS had to greatly increase, and in some cases introduce, remote hearings from March 2020 onwards. Many court and tribunal buildings had to close fully or partially, meaning hearings had to take place by telephone or video call to continue to provide access to justice. HMCTS commissioned a research study to understand and evaluate the experience of remote hearings across all users and jurisdictions. The research that IFF was commissioned to conduct needed to:
Assess User Experiences: Understand the experiences of public users, observers and judges with remote hearings. This included understanding the profile and characteristics of public users attending remote hearings.
Evaluate Effectiveness: Determine how effective remote hearings were in maintaining access to justice and compare them to in-person hearings.
Identify Challenges: Highlight any technical, procedural, or user-related challenges encountered during remote hearings.
Inform Future Practices: Provide insights and recommendations to improve remote hearing practices and inform the development of future services, such as the new Video Hearings service
Solution
We used a mixed-methods evaluation approach. This drew on a quantitative survey of around 4,800 public users (including those who had remote hearings and those who had in-person hearings) in May to October 2020, using a sequential push-to-web, paper self-completion and CATI interviewing mixed-mode approach. A large-scale pilot was conducted to test our assumptions around sampling approach and response rates. A key issue for the design of the survey was managing ethical sensitives, such as not disclosing the nature of the survey before confirming we were speaking to the named individual, to avoid inadvertently making a private matter known to other members of a household.
We also conducted over 100 depth interviews with judges, observers and public users.
Impact
The evaluation found evidence that remote public users were as or even more satisfied with those who attended in-person. Remote court users were no less likely to feel that had received a fair hearing or express confidence in how the court or tribunal handled their case.
Judges felt that more complex cases and those with potentially life altering outcomes, such as custodial sentences and child custody decisions, were less appropriate to be conducted remotely.
The evaluation identified the need for more support for vulnerable users and highlighted the need for improved technical infrastructure. Recommendations included improvements to court guidance and functionality of remote hearing software for enabling more effective hearing translation and interpretation, and the access to hardware and private spaces for users in custody, and custody staff training.
The findings from this research were combined with the findings from research carried out by HMCTS with court and tribunal staff, magistrates, support/intermediaries and legal professionals. Taken together, the evidence informed operational process for hearings conducted over the remainder of the pandemic and beyond. Findings fed into the development of audio and video hearing technologies to help improve user experience and feed into future HMCTS programmes.