Hi All,
The latest news is that the Court will not be open tomorrow, the position for Thursday is under review. No Judiciary will be there tomorrow.
Overnight
charges will be listed at Westminster, as per today. I am
not sure what will happen to 2nd bail app custody cases, they are likely to go to Westminster, but that would depend on the prison and SERCO so you should check with the cells first before setting out.
Bail cases including trials will be turned politely
away from the door with a bail enlargement notice. In view of the
confusion it is likely that Defendants who do not turn up at all will be
given the benefit of the doubt and re-bailed, but personally, I would
advise them to go in case a warrant is issued by mistake - it will still
be a technical FTA otherwise.
Where the Court knows that a firm is acting they are trying to contact them on an ad hoc basis but the bail enlargement notice, if it has to be sent by post will go to the client direct. You will still have the problem of finding out when the return date is, the Court are staggering dates to alleviate congestion so don't rely on a 2 or 3 week date, I got 10th April on a case today.
You should make sure
you can contact bail defendants, given the chaos, finding out a bail
enlargement date from the court staff will be problematic - the phones
at Camberwell are still down and the Court server is not currently running.