During COVID, almost all SADC countries’ courts shifted to holding court hearings virtually rather than physically in the court houses. There is little precedent in most jurisdictions of this and a number of challenges have been noted by both judges and lawyers alike as to how to run a trial or hearing appropriately online. There are simple challenges like people not dressing appropriately, addressing the court properly, and then even more serious mishaps such as a computer being left on in a break and private conversations being heard by all parties.

The DGRU, with the generous funding of the Hanns Seidel Foundation has make a brief tutorial video of How To Do Online Court Hearings properly.

Watch the video here.