Time, public and personal space, safe and just systemic change: a symbiotic autoethnographic study of remote digital hearings within the English Family Courts between March 2020 and October 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the government directive to work from home accelerated the use of a variety of digital platforms to connect with professionals and service users. This paper draws from Holt’s immersion in practice into professionals’ and parents’ experiences of initially entirely remote, and later a combination of both remote and hybrid court hearings. In total Holt has been involved in 338 hearings involving private law and public law children’s cases. This study has found there are real opportunities to transform practice systemically, remaining committed to justice and fairness for all, whilst at the same time providing all parties and witnesses with a choice of attendance pattern in some circumstances. Holt proposes that to fully understand the evolving nature of the relationship between family court proceedings and digital platforms necessitates being close to the everyday experiences of both professionals and clients to make sense of the interrelationship between individuals operating within the family justice system, digital platforms, temporality, place, space, and technology.