Following a successful pilot, the Dublin office of international law firm DAC Beachcroft is offering its clients the option to use cloud-based virtual courtroom TrialView for professional regulation inquiries, with a view to extending its use.
TrialView – which counts most of the largest Irish firms among its clients as well as Eversheds Sutherland, fieldfisher and Kennedys – is a platform that provides secure, virtual rooms as well as a court bundle builder tool and a private data room. Lawyers can manage and present court documents from their laptop or tablet to any other device. There is a main hearing room where active participants are on video and can be spotlighted when they are speaking.
Passive participants, including members of the public, can join open sessions using a link. In addition, there are consultation rooms to allow active participants to come out of the main hearing room and enter private rooms for discussions with their teams.
TrialView was used in the €440m case of Quinn v IBRC, where the Irish Times reported that over 150,000 documents were provided for the hearing.
“Following COVID-related lockdowns in Ireland, many hearings are now taking place remotely,” said Gary Rice, head of DACB Dublin’s professional, public & regulatory team. “Virtual hearings have been successful, so it’s possible that these types of hearings will continue to be a feature of the Irish legal system in the longer term.
“Having TrialView in place means that, with the agreement of the judge and the opposing side, we can push ahead with hearings and trials, saving our clients, the courts and all parties involved a significant amount of time – particularly given the current backlog in the courts.”
While DAC Beachcroft is currently only using TrialView in Ireland for inquiries in the area of professional regulation, the suggestion is that this is likely to be expanded.
“The applications of TrialView stretch beyond inquiries,” said commercial litigation partner Lisa Broderick, who heads up DACB’s Dublin office. “It is also very suitable for commercial litigation and mediations and to use as a secure data rooms in crisis situations. It’s a very exciting technology and provides a solution with countless benefits for our clients.”
Digital courtroom platforms are on the increase, which is no surprise given the shift to remote hearings, and the need to speed up the process in order to help with access to justice. See our article here re digital trial platform Immediation: https://legaltechnology.com/2021/11/03/video-digital-disputes-platform-immediation-launches-in-the-us-and-eyes-uk-expansion/