With effect from 6 April 2007, paragraph 6 of Practice Direction (Applications) was substituted with a new paragraph. Under 6.2 the following hearings will be conducted by telephone unless the court otherwise orders:
a) Allocation Hearings
b) Listing Hearings
c) Interim Applications, Case Management Conferences and Pre-Trial Reviews with a time estimate of less than an hour.
The above does not apply to cases where the hearing is of an application made without notice to the other party, or where all the parties are unrepresented, or where there are more than four parties wishing to make representations.
A request for a direction that a hearing should not be conducted by telephone must be made at least seven days before the hearing, and may be made by letter without requiring the attendance of the parties.
No party, or representative of that party, to an application being heard by telephone may attend a Judge in person while the application is being heard unless every other party has agreed that he may do so.
The designated legal representative is responsible for arranging the telephone conference for precisely the time fixed by the court.
It is the responsibility of the designated legal representative to ascertain from all the other parties whether they have instructed counsel and if so the identity of counsel. The sequence in which they are to be called are the designated legal representative (or his counsel), the legal representative of other parties, and then the Judge.
The designated legal representative must file and serve a Case Summary and draft Order no later than 4pm on the last working day before the hearing if the claim has been allocated to Multi Track and in another case if the court decides. The same applies to reliance on any documents.