Irish Examiner View: Log in M’lud - Court crosses a virtual rubicon

General view of the President of the Supreme Court, Mr Justice Frank Clarke speaking during the first remote sitting of the Supreme Court in the Four Courts yesterday(Mon).Pic: Collins Courts

Communications technology long commonplace in many work environments reached a new setting in Ireland yesterday when, for the first time a case was heard in a virtual Supreme Court.

Those involved, the litigants and the judges, were not in the same room but communicated via remote video technology.

Even if this pandemic-driven advance consigns the grand dramas, and lunches, of our Rumpoles to legend it is hard not to hope that it might have a positive, energising impact on how justice is administered.

If it has the same impact it has had in many other once hide-bound settings it could expedite processes and, dare it be hoped, maybe even reduce costs.

This pandemic has already shown how our health service can change quickly but whether that change is permanent or not remains to be seen.

That caveat applies to virtual courts as well, especially if the innovation is regraded as a response rather than an opportunity to democratise public processes that can seem bizarrely anachronistic.

Log in M’lud, the future has arrived.