Friday 20 September 2024 A weekly round-up of the latest news and information about courts and tribunals | | Our latest Inside HMCTS podcast offers an insightful look into the collaboration between HMCTS and the University of Reading.  You can hear from District Judge Sam Goozee, Senior Legal Manager Rachel Newman, and Associate Professor Liz Conaghan as they discuss the joint outreach programme. Tune in to hear how weâre helping to shape the future of legal professionals and the significant difference this makes in the lives of university law students. | | This week we hosted our National Awards ceremony celebrating the outstanding work carried out by HMCTS staff over the past year. The event was held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. We were delighted to welcome Heidi Alexander, Minister for Courts and Legal Services, Lord Justice Edis, Senior Presiding Judge and Dame Antonia Romeo, MoJâs Permanent Secretary to acknowledge the vital role of our staff in delivering justice. They joined Nick Goodwin, our Chief Executive, senior leaders and Board members to present awards and congratulate nominees and winners. | | We've recently launched our new WhatsApp channel allowing users to stay informed with the latest news, updates and announcements. You can sign up to our channel to receive all the latest information to your mobile phone. | | This Saturday 21 September 2024, the Royal Courts of Justice in London will be hosting a community open day. Visitors can observe mock trials, tour courtrooms, visit prison cells and much more. You can hear from some of our visitors at last year's open day in our Inside HMCTS podcast as they discuss the benefit and value in attending these events. | | The summary of the last Strategic Engagement Group meeting, held on 3 September with legal professional associations, includes an introduction to the HMCTS Board, as well as high-level project summaries, updates on pre-recorded evidence technology and the probate service. A reminder that if you join remote hearings from a company device you need to check, and may need to change, the firewall settings. An update to the technology that is supporting Cloud Video Platform (CVP) and the Video Hearings Service will be implemented on Saturday 28 September 2024. | | New features in the Civil Claims Portal on MyHMCTS for money claims and damages cases have now been extended to Birmingham Civil and Family Justice Centre, completing the national rollout. Paper-based steps that were taken to progress a case after the directions order was issued should now be completed digitally.  The digital file will allow parties to log in at any time to see where the case has reached. The new features cover: receipt of a digital hearing notice the ability to upload evidence to the digital case file (multi-media and locked documents are currently not supported) the ability to make and pay for a general application at any point during the digital case journey and to receive the judicial decision payment of a hearing fee (hearing fee payments canât be taken by operational staff and must be made via the digital case. Failure to do so could result in a case being dismissed) receipt of orders, including the final order after hearing via the digital case Parties will receive notifications at each stage once an action has taken place. | | What did you think of this email? | | |