The Square Mile Conference Center will be London’s newest court

The Square Mile Conference Center has become London’s newest Nightingale Court.

Blue-sky thinking has been replaced by jury deliberations in the etc.venues Monument, where four floors of conference rooms have been taken over by HM Courts and Tribunal Service.

The ad hoc court opened its doors on Monday to begin holding hearings, with the first trials scheduled to begin on Monday, September 27, in its two courtrooms.

Monument Court – which lies in the shadow of the famous Walkie Talkie office building and offers an enviable view of the Thames – is the city’s second nightingale.

It will work with the ad hoc court at Aldersgate House in Barbican, spreading cases across the two venues to maximize the crucial additional courtroom.

Judge Dafna Spiro, who co-directs the opening of Monument Nightingale with Operations Manager Lisa Hammond, told the Evening Standard, “We are absolutely a team on both courts and everyone is expected to be able to go to any court venue. Even the judges, we can’t care where we sit. We have to adapt to business requirements. “

While the traditional wood-paneled surroundings of the courtroom have been left behind, the often cramped seating arrangements and court facilities have also disappeared.

In a Nightingale court, the judge sits on a slightly raised platform and under the usual court seal, the witness stand is flanked on both sides by socially distant jurors and attorneys, and large television screens have been set up to meet the modern needs of a courtroom.

Ms. Hammond says the team that runs the City of London Nightingales approached the challenge with a “can-do attitude”, addressing the challenges they faced of building two new courthouses and the last six Months to list around 250 cases in Aldersgate House.

Judge Spiro said the Nightingales’ central aim is to strengthen the capacity of the London courts to hear cases that are backlog in Isleworth, Snaresbrook and Harrow, adding: “When a case is resolved, it is transformative.

“Whether the case was six months ago or two years ago, we all know – because we see it in court every day – that it scares people so much that going through the courts is a massively stressful experience . “

And she said the trials – for bail defendants and mostly lower-level offenses – can serve as a good experience for recorders and new judges: “What you get in a Nightingale Court is one trial at a time. You shouldn’t be nervous about the hearing and it builds people’s self-confidence. “

The conference center at the monument is currently leased to HMCTS until March next year, when a decision will be made as to whether it should be continued.