Behind the screens

The unstoppable march of technology continues unabated.

Amid much government fanfare last week about how video conferencing would speed up justice, Lord Justice North heard an application for permission to appeal from Leeds Court via video-link, its first use in a civil case.

Owing to a technical problem, however, the hearing was delayed for an hour, as be-wigged and robed assistants fiddled around at the back of the TV with cables and plugs.

Don't you just hate it when you can't find the video channel? Once the system worked, however, all rose for Lord Justice North's entry, even though half of those at the hearing were 200 miles away in front of a television in Leeds Combined Court.

At the end of the hearing, the judge thanked barrister Alistair Wright for his submission, and added: 'You may stand down now.' 'Er, my lord', came the slightly time-delayed reply from Leeds, which gave the impression that Mr Wright was a character in a badly-dubbed foreign film.

'I already am sitting down.' He had in fact been seated for the whole hearing.

A morass of court protocol problems could be upon us.

Will lawyers who (apparently) fail to rise immediately when the judge enters be censured? And what if people make faces at a judge off-camera?