Virtual Cross-examination: A Bridge Too Far In A Brave New World?

Even in the pre-COVID world, the cross-border nature of complex commercial litigation in Jersey and around the world often meant that plaintiffs, claimants, assets, and - crucially - witnesses, could be located in different jurisdictions.

Following the enactment of emergency COVID legislation in Jersey some months ago¹, our judiciary introduced various measures to ensure that the administration of justice would continue in a timely and robust way.² In some ways, this has catalysed a shift towards normalising virtual hearings.

However, one area where courts are understandably less eager to embrace technology is cross-examinations. As a general principle of fairness, real-time, face-to-face cross examination is a valuable way to test evidence because a witnesses' body language can form a crucial part of a judge's assessment of how truthful or reliable a witness really is - and some disputes will turn on such issues more than others.³ This particular issue was