A bit of a ranting post, but if anyone has any answers I'd love to know.

After a short adjustment period during the pandemic the court set up remote hearings, be it CVC, Teams or even telephone hearings and for the most part I found they worked great. Now I'm not necessarily talking about final hearings or multi-hour but interim hearings, applications, CCMC all worked well.

Usually it would be conducted by the lawyers but if clients needed to attend then our offices are <10 miles from most whereas the closest court is more than an hour's drive away.

Last week I spent 1 1/2 hours driving too and from court for a hearing listed for 1 hour but that actually lasted for half that. Not only that but a court just down the road was closed for a month due to renovations!

Surely HMCTS could build on what they set up during Covid when it comes to proportionality (especially when considering CPR r1.1)?