New Ordinance regarding Remote Hearing comes into effect on 28 March 2025

Since the onset of Covid-19, our lifestyles and work routines have undergone significant changes. In response to the pandemic, measures were introduced since 2020 to enable parties to attend hearings remotely. This situation has also prompted the digitization and the integration of technology within the Courts, so that there would be more flexible means of disposing court proceedings, where appropriate.

After two rounds of consultation in February 2021 and June 2022, the Courts (Remote Hearing) Ordinance (Cap. 654) finally came into effect on 28 March 2025. This new Ordinance seeks to provide a clear legal framework for judges and judicial officers to mandate remote hearings for court proceedings at various levels of courts and tribunals where appropriate, particularly having regard to all relevant factors including but not limited to the fundamental principles of open justice and fair hearing.   

The major features of the Ordinance are as follows:

1. Applicability: The Ordinance applies to all levels of courts and tribunals, including the Court of Final Appeal, the Court of Appeal, the Court of First Instance, the District Court, the Magistrates’ Courts (including the Juvenile Court), the Competition Tribunal, the Lands Tribunal, the Labour Tribunal, the Small Claims Tribunal, the Obscene Articles Tribunal, the Coroner’s Court, as well as the Court of Committal, for both civil and criminal proceedings, except a criminal trial and a hearing before the Juvenile Court.
    
2. Remote Hearing Order: The making of a remote hearing order is considered a case management decision of the Court and the Court’s existing case management powers shall apply. The Court may make a remote hearing order on its own motion, or on application by any party to the proceeding. The Court may invite parties to the proceeding to make submissions regarding the mode of conducting the proceeding and take into account parties’ views before making the order. The party may also make representation to set aside or vary the Court’s order within a reasonable period as specified by the Court.
    
3. Factors to be considered: Section 9 of the Ordinance set out a full list of factors that the Court must consider (if applicable) to decide whether to make, affirm, vary or revoke a remote hearing order for a proceeding.
    
4. Operation of Remote Hearings: A participant may attend a remote hearing at a place within or outside Hong Kong, and a participant who fails to attend a remote hearing is subject to the same consequences as if the remote hearing were a physical hearing.  Further, the law in force in Hong Kong relating to evidence, procedure, contempt of court and perjury applies to a participant who attends a remote hearing in compliance with a remote hearing order at a place outside Hong Kong.
    
5. Safeguards for Open Justice: Generally, remote hearings which are open to the public will be broadcast in Judiciary premises such as open court rooms and other venues as specified by the Judiciary Administrator, unless the Court otherwise directs.
    
6. Offence: in order to send a clear message that unauthorised recording and publishing of court proceedings is not permissible even in a remote setting, under this new Ordinance, it is a criminal offence to record and publish both physical and remote hearings, and to record or publish a broadcast recording of the same without permission of the Court. Anyone who commits the offences is liable to a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment and a fine of $100,000.

The Judiciary will issue practice directions by phases to specify the operational details for conducting remote hearings, including the application procedures, guidelines and other related issues.