Lay Representatives - Remote Hearings

bargepole

There seems to be some confusion here about the role of a Lay Rep, and how to notify the Court of the contact details for a remote hearing.

Any person can act as a Lay Rep in a small claims first instance hearing, they can be related to the Defendant, or a total stranger. However, the Defendant must also be present on the phone call or video conference, and the Judge may ask questions of the Defendant about the facts of what happened on the day, as set out in the witness statement. The Lay Rep may not give evidence, their job is to make submissions on the legal arguments as to why the Defendant is not liable to pay the sum claimed.

At 7 days before the hearing date, the Defendant should email the Court with the contact details for him/herself, and the Lay Rep. If it's a telephone hearing, they should have two separate phone numbers. If it's a video call, then both email addresses are required, unless both the Defendant and Lay Rep are in the same room, in which case they can share a laptop screen. Please note, a mobile phone is not suitable for video calls, it should be on a laptop with a camera, microphone, and a reliable internet connection.

The following is the suggested format for the email. You are telling the Court, not asking them, that you will be represented. For a telephone call, you only need the phone numbers, but for a video conference you should include the phone numbers and email addresses:

*****
To: [Court email address]

Subject: Case No. XXXXXXXX - [Claimant Name] v [Defendant Name] - Contact details for Hearing on [DATE] at [TIME]

Dear Sirs,

 I am  the Defendant in this matter, and confirm that I wish to be represented at trial by [Lay Rep Name], pursuant to the Lay Representatives (Rights of Audience) Order 1999.

 The relevant contact details for the hearing are as follows:

 [Defendant Name] (Defendant): Email xxx@yyy.co.uk   Tel:  XXXXX XXXXXX

 [Lay Rep Name] (Lay Representative) Email: abc@zzz.co.uk   Tel: XXXXX XXXXXX

 I  look forward to receiving the joining instructions, which should be emailed to the above two addresses.

 Yours faithfully,

 [Defendant Name]

*****

tacpot12

Thank you for clearing that up, and providing the template.

Redx

Good morning DC and thank you for the information and template email , it's great to see these clarifications and people should take note 😁👍👍👍👍👍👍

Coupon-mad

This is really useful; ta muchly for doing this guidance.  When I get a chance to edit the NEWBIES thread I will include a link to this thread.

Not_A_Hope

Great advice and template bargepole. Thought it might be useful to share my recent experience on this topic.

In a County Court case my son was involved with we formally responded to the court to provide a contact number for a telephone hearing and requested 'permission' to have myself also attend as a Lay Rep providing a separate telephone number. We had no response or 'joining instructions' for the telephone hearing conference call up to a week before the hearing so I rang the court. Whilst they confirmed we did not need any joining instructions for the BTmeetMe call they said it would be 'up to the judge' to allow a Lay Rep to attend and he would not be in court until the day of the hearing. Your post above makes it clear that 'You are telling the Court, not asking'.

As I could get no further information or confirmation about being a Lay Rep I travelled to my sons university address on the day of the hearing with all our documentation and we waited together for a call.  The Judge did indeed call both of our telephones but we quickly found it aurally difficult and distracting to have two mobile phones in the same room, hearing each other speak and then hear it again a fraction of a second later down the phone. We could have moved into different rooms but all the documents we each may need to refer to were in one file. The Judge was very understanding and agreed that we could use one phone on loud speaker as long the defendant was present.

Courts may have improved their communications about telephone hearings and Lay Reps in the last few months but somehow I doubt it. It would be good to confirm in the Newbies thread that the Court processes should now automatically allow Lay Rep requests for telephone hearings and be prepared to call two numbers. 

It would also be useful in any Newbies update regarding telephone hearings and Lay Reps to get Defendants to think about the challenges of perhaps having 'two phones in one room' and how this could be addressed. One phone on loud speaker with both present is much easier.

D_P_Dance

There seems to be some confusion here about the role of a Lay Rep,

Indeed, there seems to be a propensity to become confused about even the simplest matter.