Civil Court Videolink

[svalentine60]

I have a question that might not be able to be answered but will plough ahead anyway.

My son is in prison awaiting appeal. Whilst in there his assets where frozen of which there was a lot. While they were frozen his company was liquidated as he could not pay anyone because his assets were frozen by CPS. My son was then found not guilty by a court hearing after all charges were dropped and the restraint order was lifted. However, because his company was liquidated whilst he was in prison and the very people who made the original complaint 'a firm of solicitors' made themselves the liquidators and bankruptcee people That to me in itself shows a bias. Anyway, a high court hearing is set soon and my son has to defend himself as these solicitors (now also the liquidators' won't let him use any of his own money to hire a solicitor. So i'm the middle woman so to speak as my son is obviously restricted in what he can do. He wants a videolink from the prison to the courtoom on the day of the civil hearing. The court has the capability. It would seem only right that if he has to defend himself and everything he owns is on the line that he should be able to appear in that way.

However, the prison says that the court has to order the videolink and request it with the prison. The Court has just told me that they don't organise anything that my son has to and that the prison must request it. Both can't be right and we have around 2 weeks to set this up and nobody seems to know how we go about doing it. Does anyone here have any idea what we should do? If we can't get a videolink to the High court liquidation court for the hearing how is he to answer questions or ask questions of this firm of solicitors?

We're really confused as to what to do. It seems far more complicated than we think and it is going to end up with just one side of this story being told in court (Although statements have been sent). Surely he has a right to be present in this way and someone somewhere in an official capacity should know how we set it up?

Thanks for any help.

[des8]

The Access to Justice Act, 1999 allows VC to be used for civil hearings

According to this link (https://www.justice.gov.uk/newsite/c...eo-conferences) "those wishing to make use of the VC equipment should make their request to the court before the Case Management Conference (CMC) or as soon as practicable before the full hearing."

Rather than speaking to the court I would suggest an email (followed by confirmatory letter- sent first class with free certificate of posting from post office) requesting video conferencing. Tell them you appear to have been misled by the court who previously advised the request had to be made to the prison whereas their own websites advise differently. The prison service have also confirmed the court have to order the videolink.

[svalentine60]

Thank you for the help. You know more than either the prison or the court seems to.

[des8]

Well, I hope I'm on track.... information only came following Google.

You might find "Prison Service Order 2625 productions in civil proceedings" useful. (It is a WORD document which I can't access on my computer)
This Prison Service Order is issued to provide essential instructions and guidance to staff in prisons who are involved in the production of prisoners to court in civil cases, particularly on the need to take account of prisoners’ right to a fair trial under Article 6 of ECHR as incorporated in the Human Rights Act 1998. This PSO replaces the references to productions in civil cases in the Productions Manual. This PSO aims to equip officers who are considering requests for production at court in civil proceedings, with information on the factors, including the Human Rights Act 1998, which are to be taken into account in deciding whether a prisoner should be produced.